It took four days, but Demopolis is finally going to the Class 5A baseball semifinals.

The Tigers (18-11) scored three runs in the sixth inning and took advantage of St. Paul’s baserunning errors to defeat the Saints 6-1 at Bussie Greer Field in a continuation of Game 3 — which was delayed in the bottom half of the second inning on Monday — and move on to the semifinals to face Holtville.

Kevin McElroy, who normally plays shortstop, came on to relieve starter Josh Holley in the bottom of the fifth. McElroy allowed only one run on one hit while walking two, and scored a run. For the game, Demopolis had 10 hits, with Mac Bradley and Reed Schumacher each going 1-for-3 with an RBI and Caleb Cobb went 1-for-4 and scored a run.

It was a satisfying end for the Tigers, who traveled more than 700 miles in a four-day stretch to win the series, which began on Friday but was delayed several times because of bad weather conditions.

“It’s been a lot of travel,” said Demopolis head coach James Moody. “But we want to thank St. Paul’s and coach (Andy) Robbins and his staff for the work they did to get this field ready every day. They did everything they could to get the field ready.

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About McElroy, Moody said, “He’s come on late for us this year. I don’t like moving him from shortstop a whole lot because he’s so good there, but he had a big Game 3 for us in round two. He’s a competitor.”

For St. Paul’s (25-9) it was a tough end to a season marked with promise. Freshman Jack Stowers, who came on in relief of starter Hayden O’Dell with one out in the third, pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits while striking out four and walking three.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and we’ve seen the highest of highs and lowest of lows,” said Robbins. “Today was just not the Saints’ day. We’ve always talked about the little things, win or lose, and we made some mistakes today. We had a lot of freshmen and a lot of sophomores and I expect that sometimes, but not in the third round.

“I don’t like making excuses. Our goal was to win the area, each round, and then the state. We expected to be in the finals, but we just didn’t make it. John’s pitched pretty well; he just threw Friday and today, he wanted the ball. I thought he did phenomenal.”

Demopolis led 1-0 in Game 3 when it was called in the bottom of the second, but after baserunning errors by St. Paul’s cost them a chance to at least tie the game in the fifth, the Tigers erupted for three runs in the top of the sixth when Cobb hit an RBI single, Coleman Fuqua scored on a passed ball, and Cobb scored on Schumacher’s RBI single.

Two more Demopolis runs were scored in the top of the seventh when McElroy scored from third on a passed ball and Stowers was called for a balk, allowing Josh Holley to score.

St. Paul’s avoided a shutout in the bottom of the seventh when Bryon Martin scored from third on a fielder’s choice.

“We had so many quality at bats (in the sixth), and I thought we hit some balls hard on the ground,” said Moody. “They found holes, and any time you do that, there’s a chance and when you’re hitting some balls, that’s all that matters.”

“They just had some timely hits,” Robbins said. “We just couldn’t seem to get the timely hits today.”