Lady Tigers drop West Blocton

Demopolis (6-11-1) got all its offensive production in the first four innings Wednesday night in a 6-3 win over West Blocton.

The Lady Tigers scored two runs in the first and three in the third to take a 5-0 lead before West Blocton fired back with a trio of runs in the fourth to cut it to 5-3 and shift the momentum.

Abbey Latham restored order for the Lady Tigers with two outs in the bottom of the fourth when she stroked a solo shot well beyond the left field fence to stretch the Demopolis lead to 6-3.

The offensive output was more than enough to hold up the stellar pitching efforts from Hanna Malone and Natalie Tatum.

“That was a big thing we’ve been working on,” Demopolis coach Stephen Campbell said of the offensive production of his team. “The weather being what it is, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at pitches. We’ve been working on putting the ball in play.”

The Lady Tigers got at least one hit from each of its No. 3 through No. 9 hitters in the lineup.

“If we get production three through nine, great things happen,” Campbell said.

Latham was 2-for-3 with a homer, RBI and two runs scored. Elly Brown was 1-for-3 with two runs scored. Courtney Smith finished 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Jade Montgomery was 2-for-3 with a run scored and three RBIs. Anna Caroline Logan and Cameron Thomason each went 1-for-3 with one RBI while Jessica Adams finished 1-for-3.

Malone opened the game by working two and two-thirds innings, striking out two and allowing one hit and no runs. The outing combined with her Monday performance against Clarke County, left Malone with a total of 16 strikeouts over 12 innings in her last two games.

Tatum finished out Wednesday’s game with nine strikeouts over four and a third innings. She walked two, allowed three hits and three unearned runs.

The Lady Tigers are set to open area play Thursday when they host Dallas County at 3:30 p.m.