The Demopolis 15U Dixie Youth All-Stars overcame a handful of difficult circumstances to play a nearly flawless game Friday night before succumbing to conditions Saturday and bowing out of district tournament play.

Demopolis opened the tournament with a 14-1 win of M.O.W.A. out of Mount Vernon. Alex Barnette went 2-for-3 at the top of the Demopolis lineup with a double, a triple and a run scored. Danielle Tatum went 2-for-3 with two triples and a pair of runs scored. Victoria Webb went 1-for-1 with a double, two walks and two runs scored. Kerri Giles and Marti Breckenridge each went 2-for-3 with a run scored. Brittany Tanner went 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Magan James and Ricki Ann Pearce each went 1-for-3 with two runs scored. Carly Lawrence went 1-for-3 with a run while Sierra Chapman went 1-for-2 and scored a run.

“They looked like a championship team,” head coach Freddie Webb said of his team’s tournament-opening contest.

But as dynamic as Demopolis was offensively, it was Tatum that really dictated the game. Tatum took the circle for Demopolis, pitching around one run to give her defense the rest of the night off. Tatum worked five innings and struck out 15 batters to get the win.

“They were excited,” Webb said. “I was proud of each and every one of them. They all had a job to do and they did it well.”

After picking up the victory in the Friday night game, which started at 8 p.m., Demopolis had to turn around and play at 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

“It’s an endurance test,” Webb said of the quick turnaround. “But it’s like I told my players, ‘We’re in the same situation as the other teams.'”

Demopolis was unable to overcome its fourth inning struggles against eventual tournament champion Gilbertown, losing 15-3. Demopolis surrendered 15 runs in the fourth inning to put itself in an unmanageable hole.

“I don’t know if it was the heat or what, but they fell apart,” Webb said of his players.

Courtney James went 1-for-1 with a walk in the contest. Webb and Breckenridge were each 1-for-2 with a run scored. Tanner scored a run while Pearce walked twice.

Demopolis followed the loss up with a 4 p.m. game that ended in much the same fashion as the first as it was bested by Grove Hill 19-8.

“We never recovered from the first one,” Webb said. “I don’t know what happened from Friday to Saturday.”

In Demopolis’ final game of the double-elimination tournament, James went 1-for-1 with two walks and a pair of runs scored. Webb was 2-for-3 with a double and a run. Tanner went 1-for-3 with a run scored while Chapman and Tatum were each 1-for-2 with a run. Lawrence and Giles each scored a run in the game.

“I was very proud of all of them. They came a long way,” Webb said of his players, whose season was abbreviated on the front end by middle school softball. “I think we had a total of 18 practices and that was regular season and all-stars combined.”