TUESDAY PREPS: St. James seniors sign scholarships; Catholic softball beats LAMP

COMBINED REPORTS

St. James held a signing ceremony for a quartet of seniors on Monday, honoring Toba Rios, KK Hall, AJ Alozie and Connor Owens. 

Rios accepted a scholarship offer to play tennis at Spring Hill College, while KK Hall accepted an offer to continue her career in basketball at Huntingdon College. AJ Alozie will play football locally at Faulkner University, while teammate Connor Owens accepted a track and field offer to compete at Western Kentucky.

Rios, who spent the afternoon competing in the section tennis tournament at Lagoon Park, credited his success to Alabama State tennis coach Anuk Christiansz, who attended Rios’ signing ceremony.

“He’s coached me since I was three years old,” Rios said. “He’s the first person I ever hit with. He lets me hit with his players, too. He was pivotal and instrumental in my success.”

Rios has competed in No. 1 singles the last three years, advancing to the second round of the 4A-5A state tournament as a sophomore and reaching the semifinals of the 4A-5A tournament last year as a junior. He had several offers to play tennis at the collegiate level, but followed the advice of Christiansz in choosing Spring Hill.

“They were one of the first teams I was referred to by (Christiansz),” Rios said. “When I went down there, the campus was beautiful, the head coach was super nice to me and when I went to the team practice, I already felt at home there.”

Hall, a four-year starter at shooting guard on the basketball team and at shortstop on the softball team, could have pursued her collegiate dreams in either sport, but chose basketball once she cracked the starting lineup as a sophomore.

“My dream as a child was to play college softball,” she said. “But when I came to St. James and I got with Coach (Katie) Barton, my whole mind just switched. Basketball is what I want to do. Once I came here, I realized I wanted a career in basketball.

“I had (offers from) Faulkner and Huntingdon and it was between those two. I just felt like Huntingdon was a better fit for me, just with the school and the environment. Faulkner is a great school but when it came down to it, Huntingdon was the better fit.”

Hall was a four-time selection to the all-Capital City Conference team and finished her career as the third leading scorer in school history, setting a school record for 3-pointers made and attempted. Despite her ability to score, she said defense would dictate how quick she would play at the collegiate level.

“At Huntingdon, they play more ‘man’ defense, so that’s an adjustment I’m going to have to make,” she said. “But I’m going to work on it over the summer.”

Alozie, who alternated between defensive end and outside linebacker on the Trojans’ state championship football team, had 78 tackles last year along with 6.5 sacks to earn all-Capital City Conference honors. He said Faulkner will take a look at him as an outside linebacker on defense and a wingback on offense.

“I had 10 offers from multiple colleges throughout the United States,” he said. “It was between Faulkner and North Greenville University, but I chose Faulkner because it felt like home and they took me in and made me feel not like a number, but as a person.”Interestingly enough, Alozie attended Alabama Christian Academy, adjacent to Faulkner, years ago before going to public school, but never really noticed Faulkner.

“I’ve never been on campus,” he said. “I didn’t think of them much. But when I went over there, the campus is pretty big. I like the stadium, their uniforms and they offer everything I want to study. They’re also going up to DII in a couple of years, that’s the rumor, and the coaching staff are phenomenal guys.”

Owens, a two-way lineman on the state championship football team, finished first in the discus in the 4A-5A state outdoor track meet last year and first in the shot put in the 1A-3A state indoor track meet a couple of months ago, so he had collegiate offers in both sports.

“With football, I love the sport, but with track it really drives me to be better,” Owens said. “In football, I was driven to be better by my teammates and the love of the team. In track, it was really me driving myself. That’s what made me love the sport more than football.”

 He was surprised late in the recruiting period with an offer from Western Kentucky.

“I was really looking at DII schools and DII schools were recruiting me in football, too, so it really just came down to what sport I loved more,” Owens said. “I had two offers (in track) from DII schools, but one of my friends hit me up and told me to give him a call and he goes to Western Kentucky. I was just glad to have the opportunity.”

SOFTBALL

Catholic 18, LAMP 5

Hannah Smith went 4 for 5 with a grand slam, a three-run home run and a pair of singles, driving in eight runs to lead the Knights to the 4A Area 4 regular-season championship with an 18-5 win over the Golden Tigers on Monday.

Catholic will be the host team and the top seed in the upcoming area tournament in two weeks, while LAMP will be the second seed.

Andy Aiken went 3 for 4 and had four RBIs, Haley Ishman went 3 for 5 and drove in a pair of runs and Hayden Fitts went 3 for 5 to lead the Catholic offense.

Jennifer Looney picked up the win in the circle, striking out five and walking none.

BASEBALL

St. James 10, Holtville 0 (5)

St. James celebrated Senior Night as three pitchers combined on a two hitter and a seven-run fourth inning enabled the Trojans to defeat Holtville 10-0 on Monday in a game shortened to five innings by the 10-run rule.

Holtville only managed two hits in the game, both in the first inning, and Trojan center fielder Tabor Offord followed up on the second hit by throwing out a runner at the plate to end the inning. The Bulldogs would only have one more base runner the entire game via a second-inning walk.

The Trojans got two runs in the first when Clint Houser singled in Ethan Beard and Clint Shores, then broke open the game with seven runs in the fourth. Caden Anderson led off with the second of his three singles, senior Eli Griggs followed with a bunt single and Cole Anderson reached on a sacrifice bunt and an error on the fielding play. Beard made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly before Offord was hit by a pitch to reload the bases and Griggs and Anderson scored on consecutive wild pitches for a 5-0 lead.After an infield line out, four consecutive singles by Carter Carroll, KJ Jackson, Houser and Caden Anderson plated four runs for a 9-0 lead.

Cole Anderson led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and courtesy runner Riley Britton advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a ground out. After a strikeout, it was Shores whose single pushed across the 10th run of the game for the victory.

Cooper Wright pitched the first two innings of the game, giving up the only three base runners Holtville could manage. Charlie Cutler came in and retired the side in the third and fourth innings to earn the victory and Shores came in and retired the side in the fifth inning as the last 11 Bulldog batters were retired in order.

 Caden Anderson went 3 for 3, scored a run and had two RBIs. In fact, every Trojan starter scored a run, and J.B. Braswell, who replaced Jackson at first base mid-game, scored the other.

Reed Mangum was also recognized as part of St. James Senior Night but did not play due to an injury.

The Trojans (15-12) will travel to Opp in the first round of the 3A state playoffs, a team they have faced three times previously in the first round of the playoffs. Each series resulted in a two-game sweep, with St. James winning at home in 2002 and at Opp on the way to the 2006 state championship before losing at home to the Bobcats in 2019.

Holtville (18-11) will return home to play Mobile Christian in the first round of the 5A state playoffs with a doubleheader on Friday at 5 p.m.

GIRLS SOCCER

Prattville Christian 3, Chilton County 1

PRATTVILLE -- Ella Pegg scored a pair of goals to lead the Panthers to a 3-1 win over Chilton County on Monday. Bella Carothers added a goal and Baylee Rogers had an assist.

PCA (9-3-1) will travel to play Tallassee on Thursday.

TRACK AND FIELD

Montgomery Academy tunes up for sectionals in Mountain Brook Invitational

MOUNTAIN BROOK -- Montgomery Academy competed in the two-day Mountain Brook Invitational on Friday and Saturday, using the meet against larger schools as a tuneup for the upcoming postseason.

Many of the Eagles set personal records in the meet, with five of those personal bests resulting in new school records.

Isabella Johnson broke her own school records in both the shot put (36 feet, 6 inches) and discus (108 feet, 7 inches).

Grant Casey competed in the two-mile run, setting records in both the two-mile (9:34.57) and the 3200-meter run (with a converted time of 9:31.24).

Eli Jernigan also set a new school record in the 400-meter run with a time of 51.18.

Earlier in the week, at the Eagles’ “Monday MAdness” meet, Skyler Stovall set a record in high jump at 5 feet, 10 inches, and Sarah Elizabeth Casey tied the high jump record in the girls’ division at 5 feet, 2 inches.

The Eagles return to action on April 28-29 at the sectionals at Lincoln High.