The Selma Saints couldn’t overcome a hot start early by the Demopolis Tigers, as they fell 12-0 in five innings Thursday at Bloch Park in the first area game of the season for both squads.

Selma head coach Reggie Glover said the Saints have to up their intensity because area games are the most important games on the schedule.

“We’ve got to come out from the first pitch in the first inning and match the intensity of our opponents,” Glover said. “We have a young team, but I’m pretty confident in that young team I have. So I told them today to just shake it off, throw all this away and put it behind them because we’ve got to go down and win two tomorrow.”

The Tigers came out strong, as William Stewart scored Kole Thrasher on a sacrifice fly to make it a 1-0 game in the first inning.

The Tigers carried over the momentum, as they scored seven runs in the second inning to make it a 9-0 game.

Stewart controlled the game from the mound for the Tigers, striking out nine batters and allowing no hits on his way to a complete game.

The Saints got a strong pitching performance from James Vasser, who pitched in relief starting in the second inning and slowed down the Tiger offense as he allowed only one earned run.