After playing 50 innings of baseball in just four days this week against some of the toughest competition in the state of Alabama, the Demopolis High School baseball team awoke Friday morning to find their name at the top of the Class 4A list.

For as of Friday morning the DHS Tigers are the No. 1 Class 4A baseball team in the state of Alabama, according to the Birmingham News. This is the Tigers first time holding the No. 1 position under head coach James Moody.

“This is a surprising, yet very honorable compliment to this program,” Moody said. “We have always worked hard and try to be the very best we can be at each and every thing we do on a baseball field and this is just one of the many reflections of that hard work.”

This ranking may come as a bit of a surprise for many, especially after sitting at the No. 5 spot last week with a 12-2 record. But over the course of the last week the Tigers have gained reigniting as one of the best 4A baseball teams for their showing at the Hoover Bucs Classic Baseball Tournament, where they finished the tournament with a 3-3 record.

“The tournament was a great experience for our program in that we got out of it exactly what we wanted,” Moody said. “We went to Hoover wanting to see how we match-up with some of the state of Alabama’s finest and to see the kind of baseball we expect to see down the road in the playoffs.”

After the long week of play the Tigers now sit at the No. 1 position at the 4A level with a 16-5 record. And when we look at many of the other 4A teams in the top ten, we can obviously that a teams record is not always as important as their strength of schedule.

The Tigers have as many as three top-ten teams on their schedule this season and all three are of the Class 5A-6A level.

“This season we didn’t want there to be any excuses for not winning at the state playoffs, so we scheduled some of the best teams we could find in order to gain the necessary experience and confidence we will need come May,” Moody said.

In doing so, the Tigers have established themselves this season as a dominant figure on the baseball diamond and have managed to catch some new attention.

“By playing so many big names, we have managed to grab some new exposure this season, but that’s not what has gotten us the No. 1 position. It’s been our play against those teams that has gained this team that No. 1 ranking,” Moody said. “This is a great reflection on the hard work of our kids and my assistant coaches.”