MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The Home of the Biscuits seems to be all gravy for the Spanish Fort Toros.

Spanish Fort won its third-consecutive 5A state championship with a series sweep of Southside-Gadsden by posting a 9-0 shutout at Paterson Field Friday and a 6-1 win Saturday morning at Riverwalk Stadium.

“Just so proud of these guys and thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to coach them,” Spanish Fort head coach Tommy Walker said. “We just won our 200th game and 201st in (school history—28.7 wins per season) seven years and a lot of players went before to help build it and I’m proud of those older guys for their efforts and support and equally of these guys who, a lot of folks didn’t expect to get here and some said didn’t have a chance to be here.”

Junior Blaine Crain, who missed the early playoff rounds due to the death of his father Kurt, went 3-for-6 with two RBIs for the series and was named tournament MVP. He thanked his teammates and coaches for helping him return to doing what he knew his dad would want, to play ball.

“My dad was always there for me,” he said in a bittersweet tone as his and other eyes filled. “I know he was with me today, too. But just to have the guys to fall back on—the team we have— I’d do anything for them. I love every single one of them. We all knew we were going to win. I knew it. That’s the way we play. We didn’t expect to lose. Never have. Never will.”

Walker said the other players handled it well, giving Crain some respectful space before returning to their typical clubhouse ribbing.

“I think the biggest thing they all did for Blaine was after a couple of weeks, they started ripping him again,” Walker said with a smile.

Crain said it was probably good medicine.

“The last thing I’d want to do is to be treated differently,” he said. “They couldn’t have helped me more than what they did.”

Spanish Fort senior left-hander Heith Brown (8-2) assumed control in the opener and went the distance with strong command of his pitches, scattered four hits, struck out and walked three in his final high school work on the mound. For Brown, who is a spot, control and movement specialist without a lot of heat, getting his mechanics back to normal since a knee injury sidelined him mid-season, was a big priority.

“I would say I feel like I’m about 95 percent back to where I was,” he said after the shutout. “I clearly don’t have a lot of juice, so I work hard on hitting my spots and keeping it down.”

Saturday, after playing first base and having a good day at the plate he said it felt good to swing the bat again after the injury sidelined him from that as well ( he was hitting over .400 with 38 at bats before the injury). But ending his career with a shutout and a good day at the plate in a third-straight title sweep was great.

“What more could you ask for,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I thought I’d throw well. I just didn’t know it would go that well.”

Sophomore Jesse McCord followed on the mound Saturday with a superb three-hit effort. The right-hander improved to 12-1 with four strike outs and no walks in the complete-game final 6-1 victory over the Panthers.

“My change-up was working and then my fastball started to,” McCord said of his better pitches. But one left the park for a solo homer by Caleb Butler who had two of Southside's three hits for the only damage of the day. “I missed my spot bad on (that) fastball. It was supposed to go away, but I left it in.”

At the plate, both pitchers got the support they needed.

In game two, Tate Godwin sparked a second-inning rally with a double and Will Luft later followed with a base-clearing triple. Matt Hall, Joel Poe, and Crain were in on moving the runners as SF built an early lead. Crain and Brown finished the game with two hits each. Andrew Ferrell reached and scored three times.

In the opener, Crain, had two hits, two RBIs, 12 putouts at first base, and scored. Senior catcher Shane English had three hits and two RBIs, Godwin a sacrifice and an RBI, Luft had four RBIs and two hits for the game.

“Our pitching and defense played lights out,” Walker said. “But if anybody deserves this (experience and MVP award) it’s this guy (Crain). He’s had a tough spring and has gone through so much he shouldn’t have had to. We all love him. All our kids were just awesome.”

Spanish Fort finished 37-8, the Panthers (27-16).