PLANTERSVILLE — Demopolis took command of class 5A, area 6 Friday with its second victory over Dallas County in as many days. Just like Thursday’s 13-3 victory, Friday’s result was pretty emphatic.

The Tigers erupted for 18 hits in a dominant 20-6 victory that included a 3-run homerun by Abigail Latham.

Latham ended the day with 6 RBIs that included three doubles to go along with her fence clearing homerun, which essentially put a bow on an impressive Demopolis performance in the fifth and final inning. As the hits kept adding up for the Tigers, the errors kept coming from the Hornets. Dallas County struggled in the field early, allowing Demopolis to take a 14-6 lead after three innings.

“Out of the 20 runs, I’d say about eight of them were earned,” said Dallas County head coach Willie Moore. “We’ve got to make the routine play and sometimes we have to go outside our area and make a play. We didn’t do a very good job of that today.”

Lindsey McIlwain pitched all five innings for the Hornets, but her defense didn’t do her a lot of favors. In the first inning a blooper that fell into shallow center field managed to get down, despite numerous Dallas County defenders around the ball.

That scored Latham to give Demopolis a 1-0 lead. Dallas County answered with a three run second inning, all sparked by a leadoff double from Keyondra Fletcher.

Fletcher finished the day 3-for-3 and tied the game in the first on a Yasmeen Green single. Brittney Brown batted Green in and Morgan Krumrow added a third run by scoring on a passed ball.

The lead wouldn’t hold for the Hornets as Demopolis tacked on six runs in the second inning. Cameron Thomason tripled to lead the charge and later Ellen Brown’s single raced through the infield to make it 7-3.

After the Hornets cut the lead to 7-5, Demopolis put it away. Led by a 2-RBI double by Taylor Smith, the Tigers scored seven runs in the third.

“[Hitting] has kind of been our Achilles’ heel the last few weeks, but this week we’re being more patient. We’re swinging at hittable pitches, not just swinging at perfect pitches… we put the ball in play and good things happen,” said Demopolis coach Stephen Campbell.

The win put Demopolis in an even more commanding position in area play and likely leaves Dallas County fighting for second. “I knew coming into the season that it was probably going to come down to a race between us and Demopolis,” Moore said. “The difference in it right now in our girls and ours is he has 17 girls and 15 of them play travel ball. Our girls play in the city and there’s a big difference in travel ball and city ball.”