Sweet Water tops Demopolis in regular season finale
One bad inning sent Demopolis (14-12) to a 6-4 loss to Sweet Water (15-13) in the regular season finale for both teams Wednesday afternoon.
The Tigers scored two runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to carry a 4-0 lead into the top of the sixth when a series of bloopers found their way into space and enable the Bulldogs to hang six runs on the board.
Tate Gibbs opened the frame with a bunt single before a Tanner Luker single ad Will Huckabee walk loaded the bases. Paul Weatherly got Sweet Water on the board with a RBI sacrifice fly to plate Gibbs. Hunter Mendenhall then dropped a Texas Leaguer into right-center to score Luker and Huckabee and cut the Demopolis deficit to 4-3. Jonah Smith singled and gave way to pinch runner Kemonie Butler, who scored on a Branson Davis RBI grounder to tie the game. Mendenhall scored the go-ahead run on a Xavier McIntosh RBI single. Davis later crossed home on an error to put Sweet Water up 6-4.
“Not much up to then,” Sweet Water coach Kevin Byrd said of his team’s offensive output prior to the sixth inning. “They filled it up and we weren’t hitting the ball with a lot of authority. Everybody is kind of throwing with playoff games (in mind). We just had a few find the hole. The runs we gave up were kind of the same thing.”
“They got some balls to fall in for them and we got behind and walked a batter that inning,” Demopolis coach James Moody said. “They did what they needed to do offensively to move runners around and put some pressure on us. You give up six in this game in an inning and you’re going to lose most of the time.”
Demopolis got opened the scoring in the fourth when John Anthony Morrison singled and scored on a Wil Stephens RBI single. Stephens then scored on a Stephen Stewart RBI sac fly.
The Tigers upped the lead to 4-0 in the fifth as Ryan Schroeder opened the frame with an infield single and scored on a Michael Brooker RBI fly out. Morrison reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on a Jacob Rodrigues RBI single.
“We didn’t swing like we did this weekend,” Moody said, referencing a three-game weekend stretch in which Demopolis scored a total of 39 runs. “I thought we swung at some bad pitches. There again, we’re still building. We’re still working. We’ve got some kids struggling right now. We’ve got a day to work with them like we have been and just try to get them to understand, each at-bat is huge now.”
Huckabee (1-0) got the win for Sweet Water, going one inning and allowing two earned runs on two hits. Wynn Thompson (1) got the save in the seventh, giving up one hit and striking out one.
“Anytime you win a game, it helps. With as young as we are and our psyche with guys still learning positions, it helps us. It helps our confidence,” Byrd said of what the win does for his team as it readies for the playoffs.
The Bulldogs move on to face Leroy in the first round of the AHSAA Class 2A playoffs this weekend.
The Tigers are readying to host Benjamin Russell in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs.
“They’re a well-coached baseball team, fundamentally sound, pretty mentally tough kids. We’re just going to continue to do what we do,” Moody said. “Those things happen like happened today. If they do, you usually don’t survive it. If we have many innings get us like that, we’ll be in trouble. They’re a good baseball team. I’m not going to get too high or too low about today. It is what it is and we’re going to move on.”