Or perhaps Anderson thought, since his team had responded so well to his absence in their semifinal pairing with Trinity last week, that the best coaching decision would be to take himself out of another game and see if lightning can strike twice.

It may have worked had it not been for junior relief pitcher William Meador, who answered the call of the season when he came in, in relief of game two starter Bart Pettus.

Pettus (8-3) had worked himself into a tough jam in the top of the sixth and had given up four runs (three earned) to the No. 1 ranked Tigers to cut the once 8-0 DHS lead to 8-4.

With the two outs, the bases loaded and Thomasville’s leading home run hitter Wes Council coming to the plate, DHS head coach James Moody called time, looked over to his first baseman and nodded.

And with that, Meador knew exactly what he had to do, and he did it perfectly. Meador took Council down swinging in four pitches to end the sixth and then knocked off the next, and unfortunately for Thomasville there last, three batters in the seventh, giving up no runs on no hits with no walks, while earning 2K’s in one-and-a-third innings to give the Demopolis High Tigers a clean sweep over the Tigers of Thomasville 13-0, 8-4.

“That was one game where I think I saw just about everything you can see in the game of baseball,” Moody said. “William did a fantastic job to get us out of that jam in the end. Bart threw a great game as well. I wish we would of helped him out a little better defensively in the sixth, but those things happen every now and then. But in all, when your pitching and hitting as good as we did tonight, there’s not many that can beat you.”

Demopolis literally, knocked the cover off the ball in game one and set the tone early, putting Thomasville in a deep, dark and cold position that they could not find a way out of no matter what they tried.

Thomasville did not even earn a single run in game one as junior starter Devin Goodwin celebrated his ninth win of the season with a no-hitter. Goodwin earned 5K’s, while giving up no runs on no hits with no walks in five innings.

In fact, the only base runners for Thomasville in game one were those that Goodwin hit. He had hit just one batter in the game before he realized that he was about to conclude a no-hitter, then he hit two more.

“I didn’t even realize that I was only one out from a no-hitter until I heard a Thomasville player say something about ending the no-hitter to the batter,” Goodwin said. “When I realized what was going on, I got nervous or something and wound up hitting the nest two batters.”

But the jinks didn’t work this time, and Goodwin walked away with his no-hitter one batter later. As for the work at the plate in game one, the Tigers were unmerciful. The hits just a kept coming all night.

Catcher Clark Kerby lead the tigers going 2-for-3 with two runs, 2RBIs, a single and a home run, while Pettus followed going 2-for-3 with a single, a home run and 3RBIs. Goodwin would also go 2-for-3 with a run and 2RBIs, while Chad Schroeder went 2-for-4 with a double, two runs and 2RBIs. Senior Jonathan Sommers earned three runs as he went 1-for-1 with a double and 1RBI, while G. W. Washington earned two runs going 1-for-3.

What once was, is no more, and what will be is only 21 innings away, or perhaps less, for the DHS Tigers as they move to Montgomery for the AHSAA state finals.