Lady Packers to face Cherokee in playoffs

Published 7:34 pm Friday, October 5, 2018

MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County High softball team can make up for a frustrating finish to the regular season when it returns to Lady Packer Field for the first round of the Class 7A state playoffs.

The Colquitt County girls, who finished second in Region 1-7A, will play host to Cherokee High in a first-round series that starts with a 5 p.m. doubleheader on Wednesday, October 10.

If the two teams split, the deciding game would be played at 4 p.m. the next day, also at Lady Packer Field.

Cherokee, the No. 3 team from Region 4, will take a 15-9 record into their regular-season finale against Walton at home in Canton on Thursday.

The Lady Packers will need to win two rounds to advance to the state tournament, which will be held Oct. 25-27 in Columbus.

Colquitt will take a 12-14 record into the series with Cherokee.

The Lady Packers combined to produce just five hits this week in an 8-0 loss to Bainbridge at home on Monday and an 8-0, 9-1 doubleheader loss at Lowndes on Tuesday.

The three-game losing streak followed a three-game winning streak.

On Monday, Colquitt had just six base runners – and no hits – against the Lady Cats, who threw their highly recruited sophomore pitcher Lexie Delbry.

With recruiters from the universities of Tennessee and Florida sitting in the visitors bleachers, Delbry struck out 10 Lady Packers.

Delbry fell while delivering a pitch to Abeny Thomas with two outs in the third inning and was replaced by Abby Gardner, who completed a walk to Thomas and got Marlie Wingate to ground out to end the inning.

But Delbry returned to the circle in the fourth inning and struck out the side. She fanned two more batters in the fifth inning of the run-rule shortened victory.

The closest the Lady Packers came to getting a hit was when Callie Faircloth reached first when a throw from third baseman Anna Beth Bibby pulled Gardner off the bag at first on a close play.

The Bearcats led just 3-0 when they strung together two doubles, a Colquitt County error and two home runs to put five runs on the board in the top of the fifth.

Bainbridge had seven hits over the five innings.

Sophomore Jade Horne started in the circle for the Lady Packers. She was relieved with two outs in the fifth by Kelli Johnson, who hit the first batter she faced before retiring the next four.

Things got no better the next afternoon at Lowndes.

The Vikings scored five runs in the bottom of the first and went on to an 8-0 victory in Game 1.

Wingate had the Lady Packers’ only hit. She also drew a walk.

The Vikettes jumped out quickly in Game 2 as well, scoring one in the first and five in the second en route to a 9-1 victory.

Abby Plymel went 2-for-3 with a double for Colquitt County in the second game. Brooke Durrence was 1-for-2 and drove in the team’s only run. Kelsey Patel had the only other hit for the Region 1-7A champion Vikettes.

Horne will go into the postseason as the Lady Packers most effective pitcher.

She is 6-6 with a 3.79 ERA.

Kyla Morris, also a sophomore, is 3-2 with a 4.57 ERA.

Coach Chance Pitts also is likely to use senior Kelly Johnson, who is 1-4, and sophomore Abby Plymel, 2-2, in the circle next week.

Johnson has been the most productive Lady Packer at the plate this season, posing a .346 batting average. She has three doubles and a home run.

Junior second baseman Kelsey Patel is hitting .295 with a team-leading eight doubles and 15 runs batted in.