Friday! And not a moment too soon…

Weather: Storms tapering off. The cold front that brought us thunderstorms early this morning will move out by this evening, but showers and a few storms – nothing severe, though – will continue through the afternoon. Highs today will top out in the lower 70s. Cloudy tonight with lows in the lower 50s. Saturday will be sunny and very nice, with highs in the middle 70s and lows in the middle 50s. Sunday will bring a slight chance of afternoon and evening showers, with highs in the middle 70s and lows around 60.

The big 200. Pinson celebrates a big milestone on Saturday, as the city marks the bicentennial of its settlement. The festivities begin with a parade starting at Pinson Elementary at 9:30 a.m., and includes events at the Rock School Center on Pinson Blvd. (formerly Center Point Road) from then through 3 p.m., with the main ceremonies at 11 a.m. Admission and parking are free, and there will be dozens of exhibit booths, displays of lifestyles from the 1800s and much more.

Clean-up time. A slew of volunteers, many of them students at Fultondale High School, will be cleaning up trash and debris along a section of Carson Road past the school. The clean-up will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and because of that, the road will be closed during that time – something to note of you are headed from the Fultondale or Gardendale areas over to Pinson’s bicentennial.

Sports: Wrapped up. There will be a whopping five baseball teams out of our seven local AHSAA schools who have advanced to the playoffs this year, and all five have won the right to host the first round. Pinson Valley swept Shades Valley 8-1 and 11-1 in a doubleheader, and will host Walker in the first round next week. The Vikings took Gardendale to a tiebreaker game after winning the first game Thursday night 8-4 in a come-from-behind victory, but the Rockets took the deciding game 2-1 and will host Clay-Chalkville next week. Corner wrapped up a perfect 6-0 area record by whipping Dora 10-0 and 12-2 in a twin bill, and eighth-ranked Mortimer Jordan also ended a perfect 6-0 run in Class 5A Area 11 by sweeping Springville 6-2 and 13-3. They join Fultondale, who closed out their area championship on Wednesday… Softball: Sharley Miller pitched a five-inning perfect game, as top-ranked Hayden routed Locust Fork 11-0 in the Wildcats’ second game of the Blount County Tournament at Susan Moore. That effort came after a 15-0 stomping of Southeastern in the first round. Elsewhere, Bryndi-Alan Ward also pitched a perfect game, this one lasting three innings as Gardendale blew up Center Point 16-0; Mortimer Jordan lost to Area 11 foe Moody 8-5, despite a two-run homer from Morgan Maze; Riley Speegle scored the winning run as Walker upset fifth-ranked Corner 4-3; and Pinson Valley scored nine runs n the second inning on their way to a 15-1 bombing of Shades Valley in five innings… Soccer: Tori Gann scored a hat trick as the Pinson Valley girls defeated Mortimer Jordan 4-1. The Indians boys took down Mortimer Jordan 9-0, despite playing most of the match with just 10 men because of an early red card.