Designated hitter Marcell Ozuna is currently playing his fifth season with the Atlanta Braves, and he leads the team in home runs and runs batted in. His hitting success has helped the Braves remain in first place in the National League East thus far, and fans can purchase his jersey by using the Fanatics website or MLB shop.
The Fanatics website offers free shipping on orders by using “SHIP24″ at checkout, while the MLB shop is offering 25% off any order by using the code “single” at checkout.
Atlanta Braves Marcell Ozuna White Home JerseyCourtesy of Fanatics
The Braves have won eight of their last 10 games heading into tonight’s matchup with the Miami Marlins, so fans can obtain their jerseys and be ready to show them off at the home series against the Boston Red Sox in a couple of weeks.
Fans can also buy customizable jerseys on Fanatics or MLB shop for a slightly higher price, but it allows people to get their Braves jerseys in different colors. The options include a gray away jersey and a red alternate jersey.
The Vestavia Hills High School boys’ tennis team had a perfect finish in the singles finals of Tuesday’s 79th AHSAA State Tennis Championships at the Mobile Tennis Center as the Rebels won their third consecutive Class 7A state title.
The Vestavia girls also won the 7A championship, the 13th for the Rebels in the 61-year history of the Alabama High School Athletic Association girls’ championships.
All six Vestavia boys won their way into the state finals Monday and all six won state titles as Vestavia Hills, coached by Oliver Aaron, won the boys’ title with a total of 58 points. It was the ninth state championship for the Rebels. Florence finished second with 56 points and Auburn was third with 20.
Vestavia Hills’ girls, coached by Timarie Fisk, captured the championship with 41 points. Defending state champion Auburn won the final doubles match of the tourney over Huntsville to move into second place with 30 points. Huntsville was third with 27 points, followed by Montgomery Academy with 20 points.
Vestavia senior Luke Bedwell won at No. 1 singles beating Porter Hornigold of Fairhope 6-0, 6-1. It was his third straight state tennis title, but his first at No. 1. He won the No. 2 singles crown in 2023 and captured the No. 5 singles crown for the Rebels in 2022.
Florence and Auburn battled it out for second place, but neither could get past the Vestavia players in the singles finals.
John Michael Yanosky won at No. 2 singles for Vestavia, Andrew Pipkin won at No. 3, Brayden Helms at No. 4, Louis Kolettis at No. 5, and Parker Liu at No. 6.
Classes 7A and 4A/5A opened the 2024 state championships with boys’ and girls’ competition Monday and both divisions closed out their finals Tuesday. Class 4A/5A was still underway when the 7A finals concluded. Classes 1A/3A and Class 6A hold their state tennis tourneys at Mobile Tennis Center Thursday and Friday.
Aaron’s Rebels also won two of three doubles titles Tuesday with Helms and Yanosky claiming the No. 1 doubles title while Pipkin and Kolettis won at No. 3. Florence’s team of Jake Champion and Jack White beat Vestavia’s Ben Cusmariu and Bedwell, 6-4. 2-6, 10-6 in the No. 2 doubles finals.
Vestavia Hills High School junior Kenley Outzen returns a shot in the No. 2 singles finals of the AHSAA State Tennis Championships on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, at the Mobile Tennis Center. Outzen defeated Mae Mae Voltz of Montgomery Academy to win the championship. (AHSAA | David Holtsford)AHSAA
The Vestavia Hills girls’ tennis team was almost as dominating, capturing four of the six singles titles and one doubles crown. The No. 1 singles winner was Montgomery Academy’s Gabby Barrera, who won the 7A crown for the second straight year. She beat Huntsville’s Mazie MacGrotty, 6-4, 6-4 in the championship match. Barrera met Mountain Brook’s Pippa Roy in the 2022 finals falling 6-0, 6-4 and reached the 6A semifinals as a freshman, losing in the semifinals. Roy, who is 33-0 in her four-year career at Class 6A Mountain Brook, will open play Thursday with hopes of becoming just the seventh girls’ player in state history to win four No. 1 singles state titles in a row.
Vestavia’s state winners on Tuesday were Kensley Outzen at No. 2, Caroline Helms at No. 3, Peyton Standifer at No. 5 and Riley McClain at No. 6. In the doubles finals, Helms and Wynn Strudel pulled out a 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 win over Auburn’s Victoria Choo and Sophie Smith to close out the tournament for the Rebels in what was considered the most competitive match of the tourney.
Hoover was voted the Class 7A girls’ tournament Sportsmanship Award recipient.
For complete results of Tuesday’s tennis results, go to the state tennis tournament links found on the front page of www.ahsaa.com.
AHSAA 2024 TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
MOBILE TENNIS CENTER
Tuesday’s Results
Class 7A
BOYS’ TEAM SCORING
1) Vestavia Hills 58; 2) Florence 26; 3) Auburn 20; 4) Hoover 16; 5) Bob Jones 14; 6) Montgomery Academy 9; 7) Fairhope 4; 8) Daphne 0
The Denver Broncos have exercised their option for a fifth season on cornerback Patrick Surtain II’s rookie contract, the NFL team announced on Tuesday afternoon.
By picking up the option, the Broncos will have the former Alabama All-American under contract through the 2025 season. The option also came with a guaranteed salary for Surtain in his fifth season of $19.802 million.
Surtain joined Denver as the ninth choice in the 2021 NFL Draft. Each first-round draft pick signs a four-year contract that carries a team option for a fifth season. But that option must be exercised before the player’s fourth season. For the 2021 first-rounders, the deadline to do so arrives on May 2.
If Surtain had been a run-of-the-mill cornerback in his first three seasons, the price tag on the fifth-year option would have been $13.377 million — $6.425 million less than Denver will be paying.
But in his three seasons, Surtain already has been picked for the Pro Bowl twice and been first-team All-Pro once.
Fifth-year options come in four designations, with Surtain in the most expensive class – players who have been selected for at least two Pro Bowls on the original ballot for the all-star event in their first three seasons.
The other levels are for one-time Pro Bowlers, players who have not been Pro Bowlers but have played at least 75 percent of the offensive or defensive snaps in two seasons or 50 percent of the overall snaps in three seasons and players who have not reached the Pro Bowl or the playing-time standards.
For Surtain, the value of his fifth-year option is equal to that of the non-exclusive franchise-tag tender, which is calculated using the five highest salaries at a position. That’s nearly as much money for the 2025 season as the entirety of Surtain’s current four-year contract, which has a $20.963 million value.
Surtain has played in all but one game in his career and been on the field for 3,129 defense snaps in three seasons. He has seven interceptions, 36 passes defended and 187 tackles.
The Denver chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America chose Surtain as the winner of the Demaryius Thomas Team MVP Award for the 2023 season.
At Alabama, Surtain earned unanimous All-American recognition and won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2020, when the Crimson Tide captured the CFP national championship with an undefeated record.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
LSU coach Brian Kelly said Jayden Daniels is the best quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft.
During an interview with The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Kelly was adamant about his former quarterback’s ability on the next level.
“If he was a poor decision-maker, if he was sloppy with the football, if he couldn’t walk into an NFL locker room and lead the guys, then those are the things that leave you not getting any sleep,” Kelly said. “He can put on weight. Those are small concerns. He is a flat-out playmaker. He’ll change the look of your franchise, and that’s why I believe he’s the best QB in the draft.”
Daniels, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, complete 72 percent of his passes last season for the Tigers en route to 50 touchdowns.
“In his first year where he struggled at times, he was the same guy each and every week. This is a guy who can handle the ups and downs of it,” Kelly of Daniels, who threw for more than 2,900 passing yards in 2022.
Quarterbacks could go with the top three picks for the fourth time ever with Chicago, Washington and New England all sorely in need of a passer who can turn the fortunes of a franchise. This draft could break a record with four quarterbacks possibly going in the top nine picks.
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.
As a former All-State baseball player at St. Paul’s Episcopal with two sons who are already all-stars on the diamond, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for a game would seem to be something that St. Louis Battlehawks quarterback AJ McCarron would take in stride.
But the former Alabama football All-American said that wasn’t the case when he took the mound again before the St. Louis Cardinals’ National League game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
“I told (teammates) Trav (Feeney) and Darrius (Shepherd) I was more nervous throwing out the first pitch than any football game,” McCarron said. “It’s almost like when I do something like that or I play in a golf tournament in front of people, which I can play golf. If I just worry about my ability, I’m fine. But for whatever reason in these other sports, I get nervous as hell. I told them if I pass out just from anxiety, just drag me off the field. Please don’t leave me there and make it a scene.”
In a Cardinals jersey and cap, McCarron delivered the baseball across the plate before St. Louis defeated the Diamondbacks 5-3 on second baseman Nolan Gorman’s home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
“It was fun,” McCarron said. “It was an honor to go out and throw the first pitch. The Cardinals organization was great to us. I had a blast, and, hopefully, we can do it again. And we brought them some luck, it seems like. They won, so that’s a good thing, too.”
McCarron was an All-State selection by the Alabama Sports Writers Association in Class 5A in the utility slot in 2009, when St. Paul’s reached the AHSAA semifinals during the playoffs.
McCarron will get back to throwing footballs in the Battlehawks’ Week 5 game against the D.C. Defenders on Sunday. The United Football League contest kicks off at 11 a.m. CDT at Audi Field in Washington. ESPN will televise the game.
St. Louis has won its past three games to move to 3-1.
McCarron has completed 97-of-138 passes for 838 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception and run 10 times for 46 yards and one touchdown this season.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
The Alabama House of Representatives has passed a bill to expand a ban on teachers providing instruction or classroom discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
HB130 by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would expand the ban that now applies from kindergarten through fifth grade to apply through 8th grade. The ban was first passed in 2022 and was similar to a law passed in Florida that opponents called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The House approved the bill 74-25 after a long discussing during which Republicans spoke in support of the bill and Democrats spoke in opposition. The bill moves to the Senate.
Butler’s bill was initially written to extend the prohibition through 12th grade. But Butler supported an amendment by Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, to stop the prohibition at 8th grade. Butler said the amendment was recommended by the state Department of Education. The House approved it by a vote of 97-6.
Besides extending the ban through eighth grade, Butler’s bill would also prohibit teachers and other school employees from displaying a flag or insignia representing sexual orientation of gender identity in a classroom or on school property, such as a pride flag or rainbow flag.
Butler said the prohibition on displaying a symbol did not apply to students and that, for example, a student could wear a shirt with the rainbow flag.
Butler said the bill is commonsense legislation and is aimed at making sure that teachers stick to academics and not subjects that students should discuss with their parents.
Republican lawmakers who came to the mic supported the bill and said it was about protecting children.
Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, urged her colleagues to reject the bill. Lands said her experience as a mental health professional has taught her how LGBTQ students face bullying and ostracization with sometimes tragic consequences, such as suicides.
“All of you know people that have been personally affected by this kind of cruelty,” Lands said.
Lands said she also opposed the bill on the basis of her faith.
“God made us as we are and God doesn’t make mistakes,” Lands said.
“We are called to love our neighbors, and that means all our neighbors,” she said.
Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Gadsden, speaking in support of the bill, said it was an effort to students from being indoctrinated. Butler agreed that indoctrination is happening in some circumstances.
Butler said his goal is to protect children. He said he was a PTO president when his children were in school and served a decade on the local school board in his district.
Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said if the bill is an effort to prevent children from being exposed to information about sexual orientation, gender identity, and related topics, that it won’t work because cellphones make that information readily available.
“They have it in the palm of their hands,” Givan said. “The best of children pick these phones up and they search.”
Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, a former teacher, said he was worried about the consequences of increasing the ostracization of gay and transgender students, the concerns that Lands mentioned. Ensler asked Butler for his response to the possibility that his bill could lead to children committing suicide.
“This has a real world consequence, and that is so disturbing,” Ensler said.
Butler said he did not think his bill would result in children committing suicide. He said children would still be able to talk privately to their teachers. He reiterated the point that his goal was to keep the focus on academics. He said some of the interpretations of his bill were ludicrous.
“We want them teaching what they were hired to teach,” Butler said. “What they were trained to teach.”
Ensler asked about teachers who teach history, current events, and similar subjects, and asked if they would be able to teach, for example, about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage.
Butler said the ban would not prohibit teaching about history such as that Supreme Court ruling.
Ensler said the Legislature should be working on solutions to gun violence and other topics that people are more concerned about.
“Instead, we’re spending time addressing all sorts of made up stuff,” Ensler said.
Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, said it was disingenuous for opponents of the bill to suggest it would interfere with teaching history like court rulings affecting gay rights. Yarbrough said he supported the bill and opposed the amendment that limited the ban to eighth grade, rather than 12th grade.
“It’s not the job of public education to sexualize our kids,” Yarbrough said.
Mohamed Wague will play for a fourth team in four seasons.
The Alabama forward is reportedly entering the transfer portal after helping the Tide reach the Final Four in a bench role. Wague is the sixth scholarship player to leave Tuscaloosa since April 10 and the second big (Nick Pringle).
Wague, listed at 6-foot-10, played his first season at Harcum, a junior college in Pennsylvania. He spent 2022 with West Virginia and his promising start was eventually derailed with a foot injury. Wague joined Nate Oats and co. last offseason as the roster was overhauled.
As a junior, Wague averaged 3.1 points and 2.5 rebounds across 8.3 minutes per game. Verbal Commits and Mike Rodak of 247Sports reported Wague’s latest departure.
Wague required foot surgery when a different injury was discovered last offseason upon arriving on his arrival on campus. It cost him a chunk of UA’s training program. Wague started the year as a rotational player during the non-conference slate. He scored 11 points with three assists and three steals against Purdue on Dec. 9.
Wague reaggravated his injury and it coincided with Alabama embracing its smaller, guard-oriented lineup. On Feb. 21, a home game against Florida, Wague elbowed Alex Condon in the head during a scramble for a ball. The SEC suspended Wague for one game and the forward apologized.
Wague’s playing time was further limited through the rest of SEC play. He totaled 21 minutes in the NCAA Tournament and didn’t see the court against UConn. As Alabama embraces the portal era of the sport — where rosters can have near-constant turnover — Wague’s role was unclear with three highly-rated prospects set to enroll and Grant Nelson’s likely return.
Naas Cunningham an Derrion Reid are two blue-collar wings listed at 6-foot-7 entering from high school. Aiden Sherrell is a 6-foot-10 McDonald’s All-American, along with Reid. All are rated within 247Sports top-45 prospects nationally.
Alabama will need to replace at least 40% of its four-guard starting lineup: Aaron Estrada graduated and Rylan Griffen transferred. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. announced earlier Tuesday that he’s returning. UA awaits the decisions of Nelson and Mark Sears.
Gulf Shores police appeared to have been busier during spring break than their Orange Beach counterparts, according to arrest figures released by the two departments this week.
Gulf Shores totaled 286 arrests during spring break — more than 4 1/2 times more than Orange Beach, which reported 61 spring break-related arrests.
According to the Gulf Shores Police Department, those 286 arrests broke down as follows:
Three people, including a toddler were killed in a Gadsden traffic crash.
Etowah County Deputy Coroner Dantez Robinson identified the fatality victims as Noel Finley Murillo, 2, his mother, 20-year-old Juliana Murillo, both of Anniston, and 19-year-old Izak Trey Stevens of Etowah County.
The wreck happened at 5:38 p.m. Monday involving a motorcycle and a Dodge Ram at the intersection of U.S. 411 and Walnut Street. No additional details have been released.
Stevens, the motorcyclist, was pronounced dead on the scene.
Murillo and her son were later pronounced dead at the hospital.
“While speed appears to have a been a contributing factor, the collision is currently under investigation,’’ Gadsden police said in a news release. “The Gadsden Police Department extends our deepest condolences to the families affected by this heartbreaking event.”
Multiple agencies responded to the deadly crash including the Gadsden Fire Department, A-Med Ambulance Service, Advantage Ambulance Service, the Rainbow City Police Department, the Southside Police Department, the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office and Survival Flight.
AL.com reporter William Thornton contributed to this report.