Mason Avant on the hill for Tift County in Wednesday’s win over Lee County.

TIFTON — Tift County baseball is to start an important part of their season Friday afternoon. The Region 1-AAAAAAA schedule begins and the Diamond Devils are to meet Camden County in a home doubleheader at 4:30 p.m.

“Everybody starts 0-0,” said Tift head baseball coach Kyle Kirk.

Camden had a doubleheader Mar. 2 with Pierce and are playing Glynn Academy Tuesday. The Wildcats have a record of 5-2.

The Wildcats are the under the leadership of a new head coach, Brian English, who worked with teams at Armstrong Atlantic and Georgia Southern before joining the Camden staff last summer.

“He’s going to have them prepared,” said Kirk. The biggest name Camden returns is pitcher/first baseman Aaron Wainwright. No doubt that he’ll take the mound for one of the games. Kirk said the Wainwright appearance is “going to be a tough one.” Wainwright had a 1.70 ERA as of Friday afternoon.

Blue Devils fans saw some of Camden’s lineup in Tifton last year, among the names being their current leading hitter Corey Dowdell. Dowdell was hitting .476 through seven games, according to team stats on MaxPreps, with seven runs batted in.

First things first, however, the Blue Devils host Thomas County Central Tuesday at 6 p.m. Through Thursday the Yellow Jackets are 7-0 and had given up a grand total of four runs. They have four shutouts.

“They are playing baseball on a very high level,” said Kirk.

Fortunately, the Blue Devils have been on a good streak, winning their last two games and three of their last four. “We’ve had a good week,” he said.

Tuesday, Tift won 5-4 over Berrien in eight innings. A three-run seventh frame sent the game to extras.

Jake Pettis had a three-hit game at the top of the order. Trey Barfield, Gauge Domingue and Reece Watson each had two hits. Domingue had two RBIs, the last bringing in Pettis for the game-winning run.

Barfield struck out seven in seven innings for the win. Watson picked up the save.

Kirk said Wednesday’s home 7-6 victory over Lee County was possibly “one of our more complete games.”

Lee had a 2-0 lead through four innings before the Devils went up 5-2 in the sixth. The Trojans scored four times in the seventh, but Tift rallied again. Domingue reached on an error before walks to Thad Weldon and Owen Manning loaded the bases. Mason Avant singled in two runs for the victory.

Avant and Watson each drove in two in the contest. Weldon had two hits.

“We’ve been driving the ball pretty well,” said Kirk. That includes Weldon, whose numbers at and behind the plate are both flashy. In addition his batting strength, Kirk said he had thrown out four of six runners trying to steal second.

Manning hit a home run last week at Coffee, Tift’s first of the season. He’s become “one of our better hitters,” said Kirk.

Joseph Pittman won against Lee. Tift’s pitching staff is a deeper one this season. Pittman, Watson, Avant, Domingue, Barfield, Cory Frazier and Parke Johnson are all regulars on the hill.

Tift will have to finish in the top three in the region to automatically earn a state bid. As Region 1 has but four teams, the Georgia High School Association makes the fourth seed at-large, subject to power ratings.