Cox pitches Demopolis past Central
Demopolis (8-5, 3-0) did all of its scoring in the middle innings Friday on its way to a Class 5A, Area 7 win over Central-Tuscaloosa.
“I certainly don’t want to stand here and say we played really well and lost. We did what we needed to do,” Demopolis coach James Moody said. “We made some plays when we needed to and we moved some runners when we needed to. Hopefully we can do the same thing in the next area game and have a chance to play at home.”
Tiger starter R.J. Cox worked around a Marcus McVay double that hit the top of the fence in the first inning and kept the Falcons at bay for four frames. For its part, Demopolis stranded four runners over the first two innings and left eight on base in the game.
“I take it all back to focus again. You’re not able, when you lose it, to get it back. This age kid can’t. The ones that can play without focus and get it back are making a lot of money to do it. I don’t think we purposefully played the way we played, I just didn’t see us make a lot of adjustments, mainly at the plate. That’s disheartening because it puts me in a position of pushing the envelope more to try to force it. That’s not good. They need to control the game. It’s just disappointing in how we approached it the last two nights. Don’t take anything away. We hit some balls hard tonight and hit it right at people,” Moody said. “It has been a trend the last two or three games hitting the ball in the air. I’ve got to go back and look at what we’re doing and try to correct that.”
Demopolis broke through in the third as Hunter Colyar doubled to open the inning before Cox drove him in with a single. Jake Malone came in as a courtesy runner for Cox and Charles Casper singled ahead of a Jonathan Lewis sacrifice bunt. Ryan Morrison then ripped a single to plate Malone and Casper, stretching the Demopolis lead to 3-0.
Demopolis added two more in the fourth as Chandler Barton singled and stole a base before scoring on an error. Casper then singled home Malone to push the advantage to 5-0.
Central capitalized on an error in the fifth as Mar’Kalious Prince McGraw singled and scored on a miscue to erase the shutout.
Central officially announced its presence in the game in the sixth when Jaylan Gaines stroked a leadoff homer of the left field fence to cut it to 5-2.
Cox exited after six innings, having scattered seven hits and surrendered one earned run while striking out six and walking none. Andrew Patterson came on for the save in a hitless seventh.
“They absolutely gave us a chance to win as always. Without that quality pitching, I don’t know where we would be the last two nights,” Moody said pointing to the starting pitching his team got from Cox Friday and Colyar Thursday. “Obviously last night was Hunter dominating with 18 strikeouts. But R.J. was really effective today. He got tired late and got the ball up. You know what you’re getting with R.J. You’re going to get quality and he’s going to be around the plate.”
Demopolis is set to host Clarke County Monday at 1 p.m.
“We have plenty of areas to improve,” Moody said. “That’s going to be what I address with them after this game is the things we need to improve on and for us to be the best we can be. We’re not playing the best that we can play.”