TIFTON – The pitching was warrior-like. The defense, just fundamental baseball. And the hitting was getting ‘finally up to potential’ reviews.

Overcoming everything from the flu to a three-run deficit, Colquitt County High baseball secured its first Region 1-7A doubleheader sweep in 2017 Friday at Tift County High’s Devil Diamond. The 9-5 and 7-2 final scores in the Packers’ favor comes after splits against Lowndes at home and at Camden County for a 4-2 mark, and it was the third straight region sweep suffered by the Tift Blue Devils.

For the third time in this series of twinbills, Packers coach Tony Kirkland gave the Game 1 pitching start to senior Wheeler Hunnicutt. After he gave up a 3-0 lead to Tift, the Colquitt offense produced a big fifth-inning, game-shifting rally, and Hunnicutt was finally a winner.

Ethan Phillips was Kirkland’s biggest mystery heading towards Tifton, for Phillips spent all of the week battling the flu. But when the nightcap began, Phillips – as he has done in the other region games – was on the mound for not just a start but another high quality start.

“Hunnicutt is just a bulldog competitor,” said Kirkland. “He got out there and he competed.

“Phillips had the flu all week. From Monday to (Thursday). I don’t think he had all of his energy, but that’s what he does. Competes, too.

“I came to this ballpark with four lineups. I always have two lineups I feel good about. I had no idea who would be healthy.”

Hunnicutt pitched 6 1/3 innings (reaching 100 pitches) with five hits allowed, five walks, four strikeouts, and four of Tift’s five runs were charged to him. Shortstop Gavin Patel closed it out giving up one run on one hit.

Phillips reached the 70s in pitches going five full frames. He fanned seven, surrendered both Blue Devil runs on a Christian Avant long-ball and walked three. John Samuel Shenker, entering the game to protect a three-run lead, earned a two-inning save with three strikeouts, three walks and one hit allowed.

When Kirkland left the Camden games in Kingsland the weekend before, he felt it should have been a Packer sweep, and that was chalked up to mistakes. That was relatively missing from Colquitt’s play with two errors in two games leading to just one run. It was with another shuffling of the lineup, Dylan Dalton getting the start at second base and Austin Singletary playing a stellar third base. That’s yet another change made at the ‘hot corner’ by the coaches after the back injury suffered by Buck Blalock.

“It’s what you have to do sometimes,” said Kirkland, who received two double plays throughout the course of the evening.

Blalock did play on Friday as the designated hitter.

“In the first ball game, we took advantage of their mistakes,” said Kirkland about the offensive numbers. “They made mistakes that opened the door for us. I wanted them to go out and win the second ball game on their own. That’s exactly what they did. They hit the ball all over the ballpark and had a really good approach at the plate. Especially with two strikes and the infield drawn in, ground balls that went through the middle would plate one or two runs.”

GAME 1

With Avant pitching for Tift County, the Blue Devils went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning. Avant drew the one-out walk and stole second base on 2-2 to Le Bassett. That brought with it an errant throw (Colquitt’s lone error) putting Avant on third base. Bassett eventually walked, and catcher Blake Webb dropped a flare single in front of Shenker’s glove in right field.

Avant threw one-hit baseball – that safety of the infield variety to Dalton – through three innings. He was given a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third as No. 1 Blue Devil Brant Watson tripled to left. Avant drove him home on a hit, and Tift was not done with nobody yet out by loading the bases. Bassett had a first-pitch single, and Ethan Atkins won a battle with Hunnicutt where he got down two strikes on swings. But with two fouls and a full count, Atkins grounded an RBI single by third base for 3-0 Tift.

Singletary, already with three assists in one inning to his credit, took Cody Thompson’s grounder to get that key first out at home. Catcher Jay Saunders made it a double play with the throw to Logan Wheeler at first base in time.

As the Packers carried that momentum into the remainder of the game, Tift’s mistakes began to pile up. The top of the fourth began with an error, and with two outs Wheeler’s hit to left got by the outfielder. Kirkland waved his runner on second home to end the shutout.

Saunders – still with a wrapping around nine stitches on a forearm from an incident at Camden – was involved in a second double play when Tift struck out trying to bunt a runner over from first. That was in the bottom of the fourth.

Colquitt’s fifth inning – where 11 batters went to the plate – resulted in six runs. Patel was hit by a pitch, and with one out Dalton reached again making the left fielder try for a tough catch. That baseball was dropped, turning the lineup back to Saunders. Fresh off a commitment to Georgia College for baseball, the senior hit a grounder to third. As the third baseman took his eye off the ball looking where he might throw it, that baseball would be dropped and the bags would be full.

Blalock was nipped for the second HBP of the inning and first Packer run. Singletary then chopped the ball for what was a bad throw home and Colquitt’s first lead at 4-3. The Packers continued to score with Shenker’s sacrifice fly, and Hayden Bledsoe’s base hit meant the visitors batted around leading 6-3.

Patel’s second at-bat was against a new Blue Devil hurler, and he greeted him with a first-pitch chop hit over third base and RBI.

In the top of the sixth, Colquitt loaded the bases without a hit and one out. Shenker, as he did to win Colquitt’s season opener back on Feb. 14, was hit by a pitch for his second RBI. Wheeler also drove home one more from an infield hit.

From the fourth through the sixth, Tift had just one hit and one walk off Hunnicutt. In Tift’s two-run seventh, Avant doubled and scored off Patel.

GAME 2

To complete the sweep, Colquitt County jumped ahead for good in the top of the second inning with two runs on three hits. Shenker and Singletary both laced singles to left off Bassett, and with one out Patel doubled on his first pitch to the left-field line. That scored one, and Tucker Buckner worked a walk to bring up Dalton. He delivered the scoring fly ball.

The turn ended with the bases loaded. Even with the seven runs, the Packers left 10 on base.

Phillips, in his first four innings, gave up two hits and struck out six. His biggest defensive help came in the home third, which began with a walk to the No. 9 batter. Watson was next and hit a sinker that had Wheeler going back at first base. The ball fell fair, but Colquitt had an easy force-out at second. Phillips and his infield save Singletary then got Watson out on a rundown.

In the top of the fourth, the Packers scored two more on three hits and the fifth walk issued by Bassett. That came with one out and brought about a Blue Devil pitching change. Saunders greeted this pitcher with a first-throw double to left. Blalock, facing that drawn–in infield, singled up the middle for two RBI.

Avant’s home run came with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. It was an interesting frame for Phillips, for those two outs required just two pitches, but then he walked Watson ahead of Avant’s turn. Bassett was next, and the left-handed hitter doubled to right.

Phillips’ final batter of the game was Webb, and he struck him out on three pitches.

Shenker pitched out of a bases loaded jam (three walks) in the home sixth by fanning Watson.

The Packer offense broke things open in the seventh with help coming from Kirkland’s bench. The Blue Devil outfield did drop a sure second-out catch, and so Patel singled and pinch-hitter Ian Brinson singled for two RBI. Consecutive hits from Dalton and Saunders resulted in the 7-2 final.

Packer baseball has two non-region games with Crisp County Monday at home and Tuesday at Thomas-County Central, then no games for an eight-day span up to April 5 at Crisp in Cordele.

“We need to get healthy,” said Kirkland. “Our bigger arms will get a little break.”