Diamond Pack rallies to beat Coffee

Published 11:51 pm Friday, April 14, 2006

MOULTRIE — For five innings at Ike Aultman Field on Friday, the Colquitt County High baseball team could get little going against Coffee High left-hander Ryan Whiddon: no runs, four hits, five runners stranded.

But trailing 4-0, the Packers erupted for seven runs in the bottom of the sixth and held on for a 7-5 victory that was even bigger when the news from Tifton arrived.

Colquitt’s win raised the Packers record to 2-3 in Region 1-AAAAA. The Packers could have held fourth place by themselves, but for a 4-3 win by Tift County over Lowndes.

The Blue Devils got a 13-strikeout pitching effort from senior Scott Shuman to also raise their region record to 2-3.

The Packers and Blue Devils meet at Ike Aultman Field at 7 p.m. next Friday.

The Vikings loss drops them into a first-place tie with Valdosta, which knocked off Houston County 3-2 in eight innings.

Coffee is in real trouble in the region, dropping to 0-5. And except for the rally that sent 12 batters to the plate in the sixth, the Packers would have been in similar straits at 1-4.

Trailing 4-0, the Packers opened the sixth with a double by Scotty DeMott and a single by Chance Pitts.

DeMott scored on fielder’s choice for the Packers first run and Jarvis Lambright scored the second on an infield roller by Drew Shealy.

Cory Bridwell followed by reaching on an error to load the bases.

Andrew Wallace then ripped a 1-0 fast ball from Whiddon to the gap in left center to score all three runners and give the Packers a 5-4 lead.

Carter Jones followed with a double to score Wallace and increase the lead to 6-4. Pitts’ second hit of the inning made it 7-4.

Wallace, who went the distance on the mound, gave up a run in the top of the seventh, but struck out Jamaal Smith with a runner on second to end the game.

Smith had crushed a home run estimated in excess of 400 feet in the third inning off Wallace.

That homer put the Trojans up 4-0 against Wallace, who gave up five hits and walked in the first three innings.

But after the Smith homer, the junior left-hander retired 14 of the next 15 batters.

After getting the first two batters in the top of the seventh, he gave up a walk and a single and wild-pitched in the final Coffee run.

Because of shoulder problems, Wallace had pitched in just four games and thrown only 12.1 innings heading into the crucial start against the Trojans.

He allowed just six hits and struck out 10 in getting his first win of the season to raise his record to 1-3.

“He did a heck of a job,”said Packers coach Jerry Croft, whose team raises it overall record to 7-12-1.

“He really settled into the game and showed a lot of character.”

Wallace said he could not get his off-speed pitches to work for him early.

“Then I just started throwing it for strikes,” Wallace said. “I started hitting my spots.”

And it was a curve ball that got Smith — who in addition to his home run has three hits, including a pair of doubles, in the Trojans loss to Houston County on Tuesday — to strike out to end the game.

Colquitt had nine hits, including two each by Wallace and Pitts.

Jones, Perryman, Sam Heath and Matt Weaver had the others.

Wallace’s 2-for-4 night raises his team-leading batting average to .473. And he now leads the team with 16 runs batted in.

Croft was obviously pleased with the victory.

“Their guy (Whiddon) handcuffed us for awhile,” Croft said. “But we just kept hanging around and hanging around.

“You know, if you put it in play, good things will happen. And we’re still in the hunt.”

Coffee falls to 4-15 overall under new head coach Brad Porter.