MOULTRIE – With the score tied 3-3 after four innings, Cairo High put five straight runs on the Jerry Croft Stadium scoreboard Wednesday. Even with 13 Syrupmaker runners left on base and three seemingly routine fly balls misjudged, dropped or out-and-out lost in the outfield, the visitors defeated the Colquitt County High Packers 8-4 in non-region play.

The Packers take a 1-3 record into today’s non-region road tilt with Lee County High.

Earlier in the week, Colquitt County varsity baseball lost to a Hillgrove High team that used six pitchers. On Wednesday, it was the Packers making multiple changes on the mound, and most of those hurlers were able to minimize Cairo’s scoring capabilities through five innings. In each of those frames, the Syrupmakers left two runners on base.

One of the Packer relievers, Garry Hill Jr., entered the game in the top of the fifth inning with two on and nobody out. He struck out Will Prince looking on the outside corner and next faced Benji Prince. This Prince doubled to left field breaking the 3-3 tie.

The Colquitt County infield held the remaining baserunners in place making two ground-ball outs to end the inning.

Going again back to the Hillgrove game, the big inning against Packer pitching for the Hawks in the 6-1 win was the top of the sixth. In Cairo’s top of the sixth Wednesday, the Syrupmakers scored four times on three hits against three of Colquitt’s pitchers.

D.J. Collins led off with a single and stole second base. With one out, Ethan Godwin reached over the plate and doubled the Hill pitch to the left-center gap plating Collins.

From a passed ball, Cairo’s lead went to 6-3. Jeb Johnson, the third pitcher of the inning, got the second out retiring Will Prince, but again Benji Prince came through with a two-run double.

Left-hander Henry Daniels started for Colquitt. In his first inning, two Syrupmakers got on base but two other hitters sent slow baseballs to Cannon Whatley. The freshman shortstop made both plays, and both runners were left stranded.

It was the Cairo outfield that made some standard plays adventurous, and it started when Tucker Hathcock sent a ball into right field. Instead of a catch, it was dropped for a three-base error. Lucas Tostenson walked, and Hathcock scored when the Cairo infield turned the first of two double plays on the night.

The Syrupmakers jumped ahead 2-1 in the top of the second on three hits and J.T. Andrews’ lead-off walk. Blake Touchton and Will Prince singled in consecutive at-bats to tie the game.

Packer first baseman Jaycee Harden got to Benji Prince’s bunt for a force-out at third, and Whatley also made a throw to third for the second out. Cameron Cooper singled Cairo to the 2-1 lead before Daniels fanned Collins to strand two in scoring position.

Two-out hits from Andrews and Touchton chased Daniels in the top of the third. Trace Eakins got the swinging strikeout in another two-left-on-base turn for Cairo.

But the Syrupmakers kept getting those baserunners in the fourth, Garrett Gainous doubling down the left-field line with one out. Eakins caught Collins looking on the outside edge, but Christian McDugle hit a ball that fell fair in shallow left driving home Cairo’s third run.

The Packers on offense went without hits in the second and third frames, but in the fourth they gave the outfield more issues. First it was JT Whatley’s ball overran in centerfield and Cannon Whatley’s pop lost in shallow left-center. That set up catcher Callon Kubiak for a hard two-run double to left tying the score at 3-all.

The only other hit for Colquitt against Syrupmaker starting left-hander Caison Faircloth was Tostenson’s two-out triple to right in the home fifth. Faircloth kept him at third with his fourth strikeout. The Cairo infield turned its second double play in the top of the sixth.

In the home seventh, designated hitter Chance Sealy led off with a single, and Harden drove in the final run with a two-out safety.