Roberts defeats Robertson in pitching duel

Published 12:00 am Friday, March 19, 2004

Demopolis High junior pitcher Colby Roberts went the distance Wednesday night with Bryant’s David Robertson, standing toe-to-toe with the Alabama signee through eight innings to give the Tigers a 2-1 win over the favored 5A Paul W. Bryant Stampede in game one of a doubleheader.

Roberts (3-0) collected 5K’s on the hill, while giving up 1 run on 7 hits and 2 walks. Robertson showed why he will be wearing crimson and white come next year as he went seven and two thirds innings collecting 10K’s while giving up just 1 hit, but that’s all that the Tigers would need to get the win.

“Colby did one outstanding job for us Wednesday night,” DHS head coach James Moody said. “It’ really don’t get any better than that.”

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After seven scoreless innings the Stampede took the field in the bottom of the eighth with a one-run lead and their ace pitcher still on the mound. But in the bottom of the eighth, Robertson began to show signs of fatigue and after walking both G. W. Washington and Roberts; Bryant head coach John Cameron pulled his ace from the hill.

From there the Tigers only needed a sacrifice bunt from junior Chad Schroeder and a RBI single from junior Devin Goodwin to tie the game at 1-1. With runners on the corners and one out, first basemen William Meador stepped to the plate to slam a game winning RBI single to win the game for the 12-2 Tigers.

“Colby deserves a lot of credit for this one,” Moody said.

“He isn’t a very fancy pitcher like Robertson, but he gets outs and he keeps you in the game.”

In game two with the Stampede, DHS junior pitcher Bart Pettus outshined all others and came to within 1 out of pitching a no hitter, as he went 5 innings collecting 11 K’s, while giving up 0 runs on 1 hit, as the tigers slugged their way to a 12-0 win.

While not many fans ever realized that Pettus was working on a no-no, everyone knew once it was over, as Pettus let out a frustrated yell once he witnessed his no hitter go scuffling into the outfield for a Stampede hit.

But Pettus, (5-0) pitched one of his best games this season and now stands tall on the mound with an ERA of 0.88.

In game two Goodwin went 2-for-4 with 4 RBI’s and had an impressive 3 RBI double. Meador continued to be aggressive with the stick as well as he went 2-for-3 along with Washington who was 2-for-3 with 3 RBI”s. Schroeder, along with Clarke Kerby, Blake Butler and Seth Basinger collected one hit apiece.

“We responded very well to the loss we suffered Monday night,” Moody said.

“We did what a good baseball team is suppose to do.”