Cullman's Nicholas Braswell seeks out a hug following Saturday's win.

Ben Hollis smacked a grand slam in the first inning of Saturday’s Game 3 tiebreaker, and Cullman defeated Pell City 14-3 in five innings at Bill Shelton Field to advance in the Class 6A playoffs.

Hollis’ home run spearheaded a six-run first inning for the No. 7 Bearcats, who are heading to the quarterfinals for a sixth straight season.

Cullman (24-12) will travel to Hazel Green next Friday.

The No. 3 Trojans (26-15), who eliminated the Bearcats last season, advanced by defeating Homewood.

Niklas Fondren (walk), Cooper Beck (single) and Brennen Norton (single) loaded the bases with no outs during the decisive inning.

After Peyton Colvard (HBP) and Dylon Wallace (single) each recorded an RBI, Hollis came up to the plate looking to inflict big-time damage against the Panthers.

Mission accomplished.

He walloped a 2-1 pitch over the centerfield wall to give his team a comfortable 6-0 advantage.

“It feels great,” Hollis said of the win. “They’re a great team. We were putting a lot of good at-bats together in the first inning. We knew we could get on them quickly. We weren’t trying to do too much. We were really just trying to put good at-bats together. So I didn’t do anything special — it just kind of happened.”

Pell City nabbed three unearned runs in the second inning to cut its deficit to three, but the Black and Gold answered with an eight-run third inning to deliver the knockout blow.

“It was big to respond to that,” coach Brent Patterson said. “You put up six and you have all the momentum, and they put up three, and you’ve got a tight game again. It was big not to press. We just took what Pell City was giving us. We had a lot of hits up the middle. We weren’t trying to swing out of our shoes. There were some good at-bats that were the difference for us in that inning.”

Nicholas Braswell (single), AJ Miller (single), Fondren (walk), Beck (HBP), Norton (sacrifice fly) and Hollis (two-run single) all contributed RBIs during the inning. Miller also scored on a passed ball.

Miller finished with three hits and an RBI, while Hollis had two hits and six RBIs.

Braswell (RBI), Beck (RBI), Norton (RBI) and Wallace (RBI) secured one hit apiece.

Fondren and Colvard each had one RBI.

Wallace scattered three hits and four strikeouts in four innings of work.

Beck pitched the final inning, striking out two batters in a perfect frame.

Cullman’s series against the Panthers marked the first games on its home field all season.

And that makes the Bearcats’ latest run fill Patterson with pride.

“This year has definitely had some challenges,” he said. “The whole year, it was, ‘How fast can we get a field so we can start practicing and improving on the little things.’ There are so many small details that make a huge difference. To their credit, though, they’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do. I’m very proud that we were just able to hang in there, win our area and make it this far.”

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Class 3A Playoffs

Hanceville’s season ended following an 11-3 loss to No. 6 Phil Campbell in Saturday’s Game 3 tiebreaker.

The Bulldogs, who advanced to the second round for the first time since 2015, finished this year’s campaign with a 15-10 record.

The Bobcats (31-7) will meet No. 2 Winfield in the second round.

See stats below:

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Phil Campbell 11, Hanceville 3 (Game 3)

— Alex Campbell: two hits, one RBI

— TJ Kubia: one hit, one RBI

— Adam Cooper: one hit, one RBI

— Zach Campbell: one hit

— Ashton James: one hit

— Tate Brown: one hit