Apr. 24—HARTSELLE — The defending Class 6A baseball champions kicked off their road to another state finals Thursday night with ease.
The Hartselle Tigers defeated Buckhorn in the first round of the playoffs, sweeping the Bucks 2-0 with a 14-8 win in game one and a 6-3 win in game two.
"We executed well offensively in that first game and put a lot of pressure on them," Hartselle head coach Brad Phillips said. "We had some big innings that allowed us to put up a lot of runs."
Hartselle, which is looking to advance to its fifth state finals in the last six years, advances to the second round where the Tigers will play the winner of Cullman and Southside-Gadsden next week.
Hartselle 14, Buckhorn 8: Hartselle scored five runs in the first two innings and added another seven in the fourth inning to pull away comfortably in game one.
"At this point everybody is just kind of bought in and on the same page and you're seeing the results of that at the plate," senior Asher Doepel said. "We didn't even hit it around the park today like we can. Usually we're hitting doubles or home runs, but today we had to settle for a few bunts and play some small ball."
"I think that says a lot that we can not have our best day and still score 14 runs," Doepel added.
Doepel led Hartselle with four hits and an RBI and also scored three runs from his leadoff position.
"It's important for me to get on base because everybody in our lineup has the ability to knock it off the wall," Doepel said. "If I can get on base that just puts more pressure on them, which usually leads to a mistake that we take advantage of."
Cain Falciani added two hits and three RBIs, while Braden Weathers had two hits and two RBIs.
Hartselle 6, Buckhorn 3: Hartselle built an 6-0 lead after the first four innings and then held off a late rally to complete the series sweep.
Connor Stiles got the win on the mound, allowing no hits and no runs with for strikeouts in five innings.
Cole Miles had two hits and two RBIs at the plate, while Asher Doepel had a hit and an RBI.
— caleb.suggs@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @CalebSuggs2