KINGSLAND – (Colquitt County High softball lost to Lowndes High 7-2 in its second game played Wednesday at the Region 1-7A softball tournament hosted by Camden County High. Lowndes will be in the finals while the Packers face either Tift County or Camden in the final loser’s bracket game that begins at 4 p.m. today.)

walk-off Thriller over Tift county blue devils

Neither side could ask for a better situation. One needed just one out for a win; the other was at the top of the lineup, the best hitters on the team due up only needing to manufacture one game-tying run.

That trailing team was Colquitt County, and with no outs to sacrifice the Packers bashed three hits and got one error in the Tift County infield to score two runs and win their first 1-7A tournament game 4-3.

This win assured Colquitt County of a spot in the GHSA Class 7A tournament. It was also a game where head coach Chance Pitts could not be present as it was the second of his required two-game suspension for an ejection from Game 1 of last Thursday’s region doubleheader at Packer Park. Those games were also against Tift County.

But Pitts did make the trip to Kingsland as Colquitt was going to play two games on Wednesday.

What he didn’t get to witness was a three-run bottom of the seventh rally by his Packers, one that matched the three runs scored by the Tift Blue Devils in the top of the sixth.

Kelli Johnson was the winning pitcher in relief of starter Bailey Howard. Not only has Johnson won a handful of games this season out of the bullpen, but she’s had turns at bat in these games and usually delivered. In the case of Wednesday’s first game, she doubled in the seventh-inning tying run.

Howard went 5 2/3 innings striking out three and walking none (no pitcher in this game issued a free pass). Starting in the top of the second – after catcher Mary Logan Tostenson picked off a Tift baserunner – Howard retired 11 out of 12 batters faced carrying a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard into the top of the sixth.

With one out, the Blue Devils ripped consecutive singles to break up Howard’s no-hit bid. Colquitt recorded the second out, but Tift County chased Howard off the circle with a game-tying base hit. Johnson entered the fray only to allow a two-run double.

In all, Johnson faced five batters retiring the last four.

The Packer lineup got going in the home seventh pounding on the softball with singles from Paige Vaughan and Marlie Wingate. Wingate’s hit, though, was misplayed in the outfield. Tift made matters worse for themselves committing a second error on the play, and Vaughan touched home.

That tying run stood one base away with no outs. Looking to bunt, Colquitt hit into a double play that cleared the bags, maintained Tift’s 3-2 advantage, but also turned the lineup over to Gracie Frazier. The combination of Frazier and Tostenson, both seniors, led to Colquitt’s first run when Tostenson doubled in the bottom of the first.

In the seventh, Frazier singled and Tostenson reached on an error. Johnson bashed her double to tie the score, and clean-up batter Kelsey Patel singled up the middle to win it.

Half of the Packer 10 hits in this game came in the seventh inning. They only had four baserunners between the second and sixth turns. Vaughan, Patel and Wingate each had two hits.