MOULTRIE – There are two good pitching staffs in Region 1-7A baseball. It’s no wonder their schools share the region lead at 5-1.

While the Lowndes High Vikings won region games for the fourth and fifth straight times all via shutout Friday in Valdosta, the Colquitt County High Packers dealt Tift County High two more shutout losses in a row on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium. Cory Newsome and Ethan Phillips did most of the work on the mound for head coach Tony Kirkland and the likes of Dylan Dalton, JC Harden and Tanner Wilson drove in multiple runs during the doubleheader with final scores of 10-0 (six innings) and 7-0.

While Tift County bats collected just five hits in these 13 combined innings of play, it was the gloves that didn’t do pitchers Mason Avant and Trey Barfield any favors. The Blue Devils committed 10 errors split evenly between two games, and that led to a load of unearned runs, especially in Game 2.

In Game 1, Newsome, the sidearming senior, struck out three but was more effective in the low pitches. He induced 10 ground ball outs (even with one on a bunt) with five assists going to third baseman Raines Plant. In walks, Newsome had none.

Tift had four hits in the game, three coming in one turn, that being the top half of the second. Owen Manning and Keenon Webb recorded back to back singles, so Tift coaches called for the bunt by Anthony Bray. He put the ball in play hard where Newsome could field with time to throw out Manning at third base. Will Weeks of the Blue Devils also had a single in the inning, but Newsome kept the bases loaded with no runs allowed.

Colquitt County was already ahead 3-0 on a productive top of the first against Avant. It was a matter of placing the baseball in the right spots, such as on Gavin Patel’s leadoff infield single pulled to the third base side of the shortstop. With Patel on third due to a pick-off error, Dalton went to right field for the RBI single.

Plant popped the ball to the shallow outfield space between left and center field. It dropped for a hit, but he and Dalton were still on base with two down. Designated hitter Tucker Buckner was hit by the first pitch he saw to bring up Harden, making a rare start as the first baseman. He ripped the first delivery up the middle to score two more (3-0 Packers).

The Blue Devils nearly ended their scoreless string again in the third when Avant reached second base via an error. There was one out, and Avant advanced on a fly-out to Tucker Hathcock in right field. Plant couldn’t come up with the relay throw, so Avant tried to score. However, the baseball didn’t get far enough away, and Patel threw the opposing pitcher out to catcher Mack Crosby.

The Packer offense added two runs in the home fourth as, with one out, Crosby’s fly ball was dropped in center. Consecutive singles followed by Alex Bledsoe and Patel, the shortstop gaining the RBI when courtesy runner Reese Bledsoe avoided a tag at home. Barfield, the right fielder, ran in and dove to catch Dalton’s shallow fly, but it was the second baseman’s second RBI.

More errors cleared the way for the Packers to pull away in the bottom of the sixth and end the game on the mercy rule. With two infield miscues and a walk, the bases were loaded for Dalton. For the second time in the game, he saw a drawn-in infield, and this time he went to left field for his third hit and a total of four RBI.

Plant dropped in his second hit for his first RBI, and Harden made it three RBI on his second single.

GAME 2

For the nightcap, Phillips worked 6 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts, three walks and one lone hit allowed to Tift leadoff batter Keshaun Mays. Phillips fanned four of the first six hitters he faced, and three of those were on full counts.

After the third-inning Mays single, Phillips retired eight in a row. He walked two in the top of the sixth but escaped the inning on a whiff.

Barfield held the Packers to two baserunners over the first two frames. But when the errors began occurring again in the third inning, there was not much stopping the home team.

Alex Bledsoe reaching on E-3 began the home third, and Patel’s hit to left-center put both in scoring position. The Blue Devil infielders played in close, something Dalton became use to seeing, but it didn’t matter as he went deep in the outfield for his fifth RBI of the day.

With two outs, Wilson beat out an infield hit and drove in Colquitt’s second run. Hathcock sent the first pitch he saw from Barfield hard and deep to right, the result an RBI triple.

One more error resulted in the Packers leading 4-0 after three.

Wilson’s second infield hit gave him his second RBI in Colquitt’s half of the fourth. Kirkland’s team added single runs in both the fifth and sixth as well. Harden and Crosby had singles in the fifth; it was Crosby’s second hit of the game and first RBI. Trace Eakins came off the bench for an infield hit in the sixth, and with two more errors the Packers had the 7-0 lead.

Dylan Collins faced two batters in relief, retiring both to end the game.

Lowndes, at the same time, swept Camden County at home. Game 2’s final score was 2-0, both runs scoring on a two-out hit by Palmer Henderson in the bottom of the sixth.