Demopolis hangs 14 runs in win over Clarke
Demopolis scored in every inning Monday afternoon en route to its sixth consecutive win, a 14-4 victory over Clarke County in five innings.
“I thought we did swing the bat well at times. Early we had some runners on and didn’t get them in. I think we made a few adjustments and were able to drive some runs in later in the game,” Demopolis coach James Moody said of the 14-hit, 14-run showing.
Chandler Barton started the fireworks for Demopolis in the bottom of the first with a leadoff double. Two batters later R.J. Cox singled him in to put the Tigers up 1-0.
After Ryan Morrison struck out the Clarke side in the top of the second, Demopolis went to work in the bottom half for a five-run outburst. Tyler Jones hit a leadoff single and later scored on a Cox single. DeDe Davis reached on an error ahead of a Hunter Colyar single. Jonathon Lewis then stroked a three-run double to plate Davis, Colyar and Cox for the 5-0 Demopolis lead. Morrison later helped his own cause with a single to drive in Lewis for the 6-0 advantage.
Clarke scored a pair of runs in the top of the third before Demopolis tacked on two more. Andrew Patterson and Davis walked to start the inning, later scoring on a Colyar single for the 8-2 lead.
“They seemed to be ready to play. I told them to be here at 11 today and most all of them were here about 10:30. They got the field ready and they just kind of hung out in the locker room,” Moody said of his team’s focus despite the contest being an afternoon tilt on the Monday of Spring Break. “We’re about to give them three days off, bring them back Friday and practice and then play Saturday. We’ll try to just let them get away from it a little bit and enjoy some time off.”
Charles Casper walked to open the fourth and later scored on an error to make it 9-2. Morrison walked and scored on a Davis double for the 10-2 mark. Barton singled home Davis before scoring on a passed ball to put it at 12-2.
A pair of Clarke County runs in the top of the fifth threatened to extend the game at least one more inning. Lewis ignited the Demopolis rally in the home half with a double before scoring on Morrison’s RBI single. Morrison scored the final run of the game on a Patterson sacrifice fly.
Demopolis (9-5) is set to play again Saturday when it travels to Greensboro four a doubleheader.
“We haven’t played them in several years actually,” Moody said as he turned his attention to what he would like to see from his team in the weeks leading up to the postseason. “Just continue to get better. I wasn’t pleased with our pitching late. We didn’t go out there and attack the zone like we should have. Any time our batters are putting runs on the board, we’ve got to go out there and make them hit it.”