SPANISH FORT—Wes Runnels lifted his sixth and seventh home runs of the year Monday on the hill at Spanish Fort as the Toros tanked the Dolphins 18-3 in five innings. Zac Fowler and Jay Brackin also homered for the Toros who improved to 19-8. Justin Key got the win on three hits and had eight strikeouts and gave up two earned runs.

SFHS had already sewed up the area title and GSHS had locked in the runner-up spot ahead of Escambia County and Vigor.

The loss set the Dolphins back to 6-3 in the area and 16-9 overall. GSHS coach Donnie Spohn said his team was better than the score.

"They hit a couple of balls that got out of here, made plays, did what they needed to do and we didn't," he said. "And pretty soon it gets away from you. We played nine games in (the last) seven days and had to throw our young guys a lot and that showed. I'm not taking anything away from them, we just have to start getting some arms ready (for the playoffs). But that's not us, we're better than that. We just have to go back to work and make a run at the playoffs."

The Dolphins will travel to face St. Paul's while SFHS will host the first round for the first time in school history with either Citronelle or Faith Academy.

Toro coach Tommy Walker, whose teams have always made the playoffs but never won their area at the 5A level, was pleased with the perfect 9-0 area outcome. But like Spohn, said the next step is getting ready for the post season.

"We're happy to get to host the first game for the first time," he said. "You always want to play better at the end of the year than early and right now we feel like we're doing that. Our goal right now is to get better every day and kind of set our pitching up for playoffs." Walker said the long road back for Jay Myrick who recovered from surgery last year and has won both of his games so far will play a big role. "Justin pitched well for us. He got stronger. He struck out four in a row and five of the last six. They had one big inning (third), we helped a little bit, but they found the barrell a few times. For me, the big play was the line drive that Chris Beasley ran down in center field then doubled up the runner at second to stop the rally in the third."

The Toros also got help at the plate from Aaron Burdick, Troy Brown and Key who had two hits each. SF jumped out 5-0 in the second. Myrick singled and scored on Fowler's homer. Brackin had his solo shot, Key was hit, Brown singled and Burdick drove both runs in on a single.

GSHS got on the board next to make it 5-3 on a one-out rally. Braydon Bateman reached on an error, Bernard Nesbitt was hit and both scored on a double by Clay Gates. Collin Blankenship singled then drew a throw that got away allowing Gates to score. Chad Hartley drilled a line drive into the left-center gap, but Beasley tracked it down and fired back to second to double off Blankenship.

SF went on to add eight more in the third including both of Runnels' homers.

The junior had a lead off solo to right center and a three run blast to left to close the bat-a-round inning. In between, Key had a two-RBI triple and Patrick McGavin had an RBI double.

The Toros tacked on five in the fourth. Fowler singled and was singled in by Brown, Burdick drove in Brackin and errors allowed three.

Wes Runnels' seven homers leads the Toros, with teammate Logan Rogers right behind with five home runs.

Last week, SFHS defeated the Dolphins at Gulf Shores in a pair of shutouts with McGavin winning 5-0 and Nick Price winning 9-0.

Myrick, a four-year starting senior, is expected to pitch for the Toros' on senior night against Theodore at SFHS at 6 p.m.