Upcoming: All-area baseball and golf

– posted by Cody Whitlock

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the Daily‘s all-area baseball and golf teams. I’ve lined up interviews for the player of the year and coach of the year recipients, and I’ll be rewarding those folks in print soon.

State baseball scores

– posted by Cody Whitlock

Here’s a look at the final scores from this past week’s state baseball championship series in Montgomery:

Tuesday
At Paterson Field
Class 1A
Shoals Christian 5, Fayetteville 3
CLASS 4A
Brooks 8, UMS-Wright 5

Wednesday
At Riverwalk Stadium
Class 1A
Shoals Christian (33-21) 7,  Fayetteville (28-7) 4 (Shoals Christian wins series, 2-0)
CLASS 4A
UMS-Wright (24-17) 11-9, Brooks (27-15) 3-7 (UMS wins series, 2-1, final game 8 Innings)
At Paterson Field
Class 2A
Leroy (33-4) 11, American Christian (28-10) 1
CLASS 3A
Gordo (35-7) 7. Madison Academy (30-13) 3 

Thursday
At Riverwalk Stadium
Class 2A
American Christian (30-10) 10-11, Leroy (33-6) 5-10 (American Christian wins series, 2-1)
CLASS 3A
Gordo (36-7) 7, Madison Academy (30-14) 6 (Gordo wins series, 2-0)
At Paterson Field
Class 5A
Spanish Fort (35-8) 16, Cullman (45-10) 6
CLASS 6A
Huntsville (34-11) 6, Baldwin County (36-13) 1 

Friday
At Riverwalk Stadium
Class 5A
Spanish Fort (36-8) 11, Cullman (45-11) 6 (Spanish Fort wins series, 2-0)
CLASS 6A
Huntsville (35-11) 10, Baldwin County (36-14) 2 (Huntsville wins series, 2-0)

Cullman loses first game in 5A baseball finals

– posted by Cody Whitlock

For those of you who are interested …

Top-ranked Cullman, which ousted Athens in last week’s semifinals and bested Hartselle in the Class 5A, Area 13 standings, dropped its first game against Spanish Fort in the state championship series Thursday.

For more on the Bearcats’ 16-6 loss, read more here.

Shoals Christian, UMS-Wright win baseball titles

– posted by Cody Whitlock

Class 1A Shoals Christian and 4A UMS-Wright were the first teams to emerge from Montgomery as state champions. Read here for details from the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

And scroll down further for complete scores and pairings.

The decision is in

– posted by Cody Whitlock

Trevor Lacey announces he’ll remain in-state and play for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Be sure and read Michael Casagrande’s full coverage in tomorrow’s Decatur Daily and check out additional coverage at the Daily Bama Blog.

Lacey to announce at top of the hour

– posted by Cody Whitlock

We’re minutes away from Butler High’s Trevor Lacey announcing where he’ll play basketball next season.

Esteemed co-worker Michael Casagrande is in Huntsville, where he will air Lacey’s announcement live via the Daily Bama Blog. Follow along.

State softball: First-round pairings

— posted by Michael Cummings

The state softball tournament starts tomorrow morning at Lagoon Park in Montgomery.

Four local teams will compete: Class 5A Hartselle and Lawrence County; Class 4A Ardmore; and Class 2A Hatton.

Follow me after the jump for the first-round pairings and times.

Butler’s Lacey to choose tomorrow

– posted by Cody Whitlock

Mr. Basketball Trevor Lacey, of Butler High in Huntsville, will announce his college choice tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Butler High's Trevor Lacey

The 6-foot-3 shooting guard will likely decide between Kansas, Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn. Tune into River City Rumblings tomorrow at 2 p.m. We’ll pass along Mr. Basketball’s announcement.   

This is the same guy who scored a Northwest Regional record 44 points in the Rebels’ blowout win over East Lawrence in the Class 4A tournament at Hanceville.  

Tell us what you think …

Taylor rumor just a rumor

– posted by Cody Whitlock

An unnamed source said that West Limestone junior and former Auburn football commitment Alex Taylor, who was recently dismissed from the Wildcats’ football team, will transfer schools.

But according to his legal guardian and former football coach, there is no truth to the claim.

Alex Taylor

Martha Taylor, Alex’s legal guardian, said in a phone conversation minutes ago that Alex is still enrolled at West Limestone. Wildcats football coach David Arnsparger said the same, while adding Taylor’s dismissal remains in effect.

Taylor was dismissed last month for disclosed reasons, and, immediately following Arnsparger’s decision to dismiss the first-team all-stater, Auburn no longer honored his commitment.

Daily Double, 5-17

— posted by Michael Cummings

The end of the high school sports season is upon us. This weekend, four local teams will play in the state softball tournament in Montgomery. Then, it’s all over until football and volleyball. Hard to believe, huh?

Well, here’s another thing that’s gonna be hard to take. The Daily Double is going away for a while. Without a daily flow of prep headlines, it just doesn’t make sense to have a, well, daily feature like that. But don’t worry. It’ll be back in the fall.

Until then, we’ll just start posting prep article as they appear.

Like this one, on Austin High graduate Juwan Simpson. Now entering his fourth year as a professional football player, Simpson has turned himself into an all-star in the CFL. By Daily sports intern Brett Hudson. Link

Here’s an excerpt:

“That was my first year up here and my first championship win,” Simpson said. “You hear guys talking about how hard it is to win championships, but you don’t know it until you’re getting ready for the championship game.”