MOULTRIE – The night first belonged to the 12 Colquitt County High seniors named above.

When baseball started, Thomas County-Central scored six runs in a row and won the non-region contest by that margin 8-2.

Coach Tony Kirkland gave the initial pitching assignments to three 12th graders who have not logged much innings during the 2018 season. Jared Horne took the mound first, followed by Brandon Dean and Carson Asbell. They worked three full innings and received a warm welcome when they departed the mound.

Trace Eakins was the fourth Packer hurler, and the junior fanned four batters going 3 1/3 innings. He also didn’t allow a run over the first three of those frames and surrendered just one hit.

Colquitt County offensively ran into some bad luck … or actually good defensive work from the visiting Yellow Jackets. That included a double play to end the first inning.

With base hits from Tucker Hathcock and Cory Newsome, the Packers loaded the bases with one out in the second. But with a pop-up and line drive snagged by pitcher Dylan Smith, the inning was over without anyone scoring.

Colquitt took some swings on Mack McDowell in the third and scored two runs. Reese Bledsoe led off with a single, and consecutive hits by Raines Plant and Hathcock ended the shutout. Newsome singled home Colquitt’s only other run on a first-pitch hit.

McDowell ended the game with four scoreless innings, four strikeouts, another double play and hits by Dylan Dalton and Mack Crosby.