Soccer, baseball players named to postseason teams
Four members of the Mountain Brook High School boys and girls soccer teams and two baseball players were recognized with postseason accolades.
On the Class 7A all-state soccer team, seniors Ethan Harradine and Eli Sellers each received first-team honors. Harradine led the team in scoring this season with 28 goals and will leave Mountain Brook as the program’s career scoring leader with 60 goals.
Coach Joe Webb said Harradine made his presence felt on the attack even though he played midfield.
“Ethan was the conductor for our offense,” Webb said. “He is a mercurial talent, which is common with a creative player like that.”
Sellers was a standout defender who commanded a defensive unit that only allowed 22 goals this year. In addition to his on-field contributions, he also exhibited great leadership, serving as a team captain for four years.
The boys team reached the 7A semifinals, where the Spartans fell to crosstown foe Vestavia Hills in Huntsville. Mountain Brook notched playoff victories over Hoover and Bob Jones to reach the Final Four.
On the girls team, junior midfielder Lamar Campbell and junior goalkeeper Sarah Francis Adair received first-team all-metro honors. Adair was also honorable mention on the all-state team, while Claire Brian and Emma Blakely were honorable mention all-metro.
All-state selections were made by coaches across the state and the all-metro teams were selected by Birmingham-area coaches.
From the baseball team, senior pitcher Aaron Shiflet and junior designated hitter Colton Yeager each were named to the second team of the 7A all-state squad, as voted on by the Alabama Sports Writers Association.
Shiflet was an outstanding reliever for the Spartans in the spring. In 26 innings of dominant work, he only allowed four unearned runs, saved five games and won three. He walked just five hitters and struck out 29 hitters on the year.
Shiflet plans on continuing his baseball career at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Yeager makes much of his athletic contributions as a linebacker for the Spartans football team, but he made plenty of noise with his baseball bat as well. He hit for a .354 average with three home runs and 32 RBIs. He finished the year with 35 hits and 30 runs scored.
The Spartans baseball team had a successful season, winning Area 6 in dramatic fashion. Mountain Brook swept Spain Park in its final area series of the season and forced a one-game playoff against Oak Mountain.
In that tiebreaker, the Spartans won 2-1 in an extra-inning contest. Parker Garrison pitched all eight innings and Clay Stearns lifted Mountain Brook to the win with a walk-off homer. The Spartans fell to James Clemens in the first round of the state playoffs.