The Demopolis High School softball team dropped two out of three games at the Hillcrest Round Robin Monday to open its 2011 campaign.

The Lady Tigers started the day with a 3-0 loss to host Hillcrest, posting a solid defensive performance despite their offensive woes.

“We played decent ball,” coach Todd Mathis said of the game. “We had good defense.”

The Lady Tigers were unable to reach base safely in their five innings of play against the Lady Patriots, watching as 11 of their 15 batters struck out.

Madison Laduron kept Demopolis in the game, striking out one and walking none while scattering seven hits over four innings in the circle.

In its second game of the day, Demopolis fell 10-0 to Brookwood. The Lady Tigers failed to get a hit in three innings of play and saw the proverbial wheels come off in the bottom of the third when Brookwood scored six runs.

“It got away from us,” Mathis said. “We had a couple early errors and it just got away from us.”

Mathis said he was impressed with his players’ resiliency as it took the field for its final game of the tournament, a contest it won 4-1 over Oak Grove.

“They surprised me a little bit,” Mathis said. “I was worried about their psyche after getting hammered by Brookwood. They didn’t quit. I was proud for them for coming back and winning that game.”

Demopolis fell behind 1-0 after the first inning, but hung four runs on the board in the bottom of the second.

Kristin Beach led the way offensively, going 2-for-2 with a triple in the game. Maria Brooker went 1-for-1 with a run scored. Sidney Colyar was 1-for-2 with a run scored. Alex Crawford went 1-for-2. Courtney Lawrence walked twice. Olivia Brame walked and scored. Riley King walked and saw courtesy runner Victoria Webb score in her stead.

“It could have been worse. It could have been better,” Mathis said flatly of his team’s first day of play. The ladies will take to the diamond again Wednesday at 5 p.m. when they host Hale County.