BUCS WIN ACCC REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP; SWEEP CALHOUN

DECATUR – The 10^th-ranked Shelton State baseball defeated Calhoun Community College on Sunday to capture the school's 18^th regular season Alabama Community College Conference baseball championship. The Bucs have won three straight regular season titles and four in the last five years.

Shelton State posted a 3-1 win over the Warhawks in game and needed a ninth-inning rally and extra innings to pull out an 8-5 win in game two at Fred Frickie Field.

Shelton State (43-11, 27-9 ACCC) and Gadsden State (38-13, 27-9 ACCC) are the ACCC co-champions but the Bucs will the No.1 seed at the 2025 ACCC Tournament, which begins Thursday, May 8 at Choccolocco Park in Oxford. The Bucs first game will be Friday, May 9 at 10 a.m. against Northwest Shoals or Wallace State Hanceville.

The Bucs trailed 5-3 heading to ninth inning in Sunday's series finale. A loss and the Bucs would have finished second in the standings, one game behind the Cardinals.

The ninth inning began when freshman DH Peyton Zupancic reached on an error by Calhoun third baseman Tarpley Priest. Sophomore CF Pierce Dutton followed with an infield hit to put the tying run on base. After sophomore 2B Brexton Taft was called out on batter's interference, freshman catcher Grant Browning was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Sophomore LF Tripp Gann hit a deep fly ball to center fielder Max Morrison, who made the catch for second out. Zupancic scored on the sac fly to make it 5-4.  Freshman Jackson Henderson delivered a pinch-hit RBI single to score Dutton with the tying run.

After Calhoun left two runners on base in the ninth, Shelton State struck for three runs in the 10^th inning to take its first lead of the game. Freshman 3B Slade Sullivan and sophomore SS Paxton Ponder opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Sophomore pinch-hitter Hayes Alford grounded into a fielder's choice putting runners on the corners with one out. 

Dutton slammed the next pitch into the right center field gap to score Sullivan and Alford and put the Bucs in front 7-5.  Sophomore catcher Lawson Neel delivered a one-out single to center to score Dutton to extend the lead to 8-5. Gann singled and sophomore LF Trenton Shirley walked to load the bases but stranded all three runners.

Sophomore LHP John Michael Pickens, who wriggled out of trouble in the ninth, retired the Warhawks in order in the 10^th inning for the win. Pickens (5-1) retired four of the five batters he faced with three strikeouts, for his second win in the series.

Dutton and Gann both had two hits and two RBIs in the nightcap. Sullivan and sophomore 1B Brady Waugh also had two hits.

The game was scoreless going into the bottom of the fourth inning before the two teams scored six straight half innings.

Calhoun (16-37, 11-25 ACCC) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on an RBI double by Priest.

The Bucs tied the game at 1-1 on Zupancic's RBI double in the fifth. Preist's RBI ground put the Warahawks back in front 2-1 in the bottom of the frame.

Sullivan's RBI single tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the sixth. The Warhawks answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 5-2 lead. Cooper Phillips 2-run single was the big hit in the inning.

Gann's RBI ground out in the seventh made it a 5-3 game.

Shelton State posted a 3-1 win in the first game as sophomore RF Mason Steele delivered a two-run single in the top of the first inning.

Hunter Howell's RBI single put Calhoun on the board in the second inning.

Sullivan's sac fly in the sixth pushed the lead to 3-1.

Freshman RHP Eli Driskell (7-3) posted in team-leading seventh win on the mound.

Zupancic worked two perfect innings with two strikeouts for his third save.

The Bucs used 12 different pitchers on Sunday, including the pitching debut freshman RHP Carson Tice, who worked one scoreless inning.