Demopolis drills Selma 11-1 Saturday
Demopolis (8-9, 2-0) dispatched of Selma quickly Saturday afternoon, downing the Saints 11-1 in five innings of play.
The Tigers hung three runs on the board in each of the first, fourth and fifth innings while scoring one run in each of the second and third innings.
“They swung the bat better and got great starting pitching,” Demopolis coach James Moody said of his team’s performance. “We’re still having lapses in some at-bats and not grinding them out like I would like, but we did swing it better from the get go.”
Demopolis staged a three-run, one-out rally in the fifth to win the game via the 10-run rule. Ryan Schroeder drove a double to deep left-center before scoring on a RBI triple by Matt Eicher. Seth Aiken reached on a hit-by-pitch before Michael Brooker ended the game with a two-run double to center field that plated Eicher and Aiken.
The Tigers opened the scoring in the first when Eicher reached on a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Aiken and scored on an error that came during a Tyler Oates single.
Oates scored the second run of the game on a John Anthony Morrison RBI single. Brooker singled and later crossed home on a RBI grounder by Jacob Rodrigues.
Demopolis scored another run in the second when Schroeder reached on an error and scored on an Oates RBI single.
The Tigers stretched the lead to 5-0 in the third as Morrison reached on a three-base error and scored on a Rodrigues RBI single.
Demopolis scored three runs with two away in the fourth as Aiken and Oates drew walks before Brooker was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Aiken scored on an error induced by a Morrison grounder. Oates and Brooker scored on a two-RBI single by Rodrigues.
“We’re trying to find ourselves still,” Moody said. “I noticed this week in practice, I think we started putting our focus in the direction we needed to go. Regardless of wins and losses, if we play well and play together, that is all (the coaches) want out of them.”
The offensive output backed up a complete game effort by sophomore Adam Sellers (2-0), who worked gave up five hits over five innings while striking out nine and walking two.
Aaron Drake scored the lone Selma run in the fourth inning when he stole home on the back end of a delayed double steal that also saw Adam Bruno steal second.
Demopolis plans to travel to Wetumpka Thursday to take on Holtville and Wetumpka High before concluding tournament play against Stanhope Elmore Friday.
“I want to see us catch the ball a little better. I want to see us play good defense and put some quality at-bats together,” Moody said of what he is looking for out of his team during its spring break play. “We need to make some pitchers go deeper in counts and just leave feeling better than we were then we got there.”
The Tigers are set to play Holtville at 4 p.m. Thursday and Wetumpka following.