Tigers thump Sweet Water in home opener

After allowing four runs in the top of the first inning, Demopolis settled in to blank Sweet Water the rest of the way en route to a 14-4 victory Wednesday afternoon.

“I thought they did an excellent job,” Demopolis coach Ben Ramer said of the five pitchers who combined to work the game’s final five innings. “After that first inning, I thought they did an excellent job. We came into today excepting to throw seven guys over seven innings.”

The game marked the first in nine days for the Tigers after unfavorable weather conditions forced the cancellation of a scheduled tournament last weekend and the postponement of the Sweet Water contest, which had originally been slated to be a double-header Tuesday.

In the top half of the first inning, the Tigers showed the ill effects of the layoff.

“It feels like it has been forever since we’ve been on the field,” Ramer said. “We come out in the first inning and we don’t know where to throw the ball when we get it. We looked like it was our first game and we hadn’t had a lot of practice.”

In the home half of the opening frame, the Demopolis bats began to make up for the woeful start the team experienced on defense.

“If we were going to be good at anything today, it should have been the bats,” Ramer said. “We’ve been in the cage for sure. We had a pile of hits that first inning. It was a good answer to a bad inning.”

Demopolis hung eight runs on the board in the first inning to take control of the contest before scoring one more in each of the third and fourth frames. A three-run fifth left the Tigers up 13-4 before Josh Mangum ended the game on a RBI single in the sixth.

Walker Davis doubled, scored two runs and had a RBI in the game. Brock Montgomery went 2-for-2 with a double, a triple, a pair of walks and two runs scored.

Devin Stroud was 2-for-4 with a run scored. Mason Rogers was 2-for-4 with a run scored and a pair of RBIs.

Wesley Anderson doubled, walked, scored a run and had a RBI. Michael Brooker singled, scored two runs and had a RBI.

Tyler Oates went 2-for-3 with two doubles and two runs scored. Matt Eicher singled and scored. Will Tucker walked twice and scored once. Mangum finished with two RBIs and a run scored.

Davis got the win on the mound after working a scoreless fourth. Tucker fanned two in a scoreless second. Stroud and Brooker each struck out a batter in an inning of work. Stephen Stewart also worked a scoreless frame.

The Tigers are scheduled to travel to Thomasville Friday before playing Jackson and Beauregard in a double-header Saturday.