TIFTON – Any questions about Colquitt County High baseball having the pitching to get through both ends of a doubleheader were answered for one night Friday, and those answers sent the Packers into second place in Region 1-7A halfway through the regular season.

Trace Eakins threw an unofficial total of 105 pitches into the seventh inning of Game 1 and overcame a shaky start to get a 6-4 victory over the Tift County Blue Devils. Game 2 was just as tight … that is, until it became a laugher when Colquitt County scored six runs in the top of the seventh. The 13-4 final score completed the sweep for the visiting club and improved Colquitt County to 4-10 overall.

More importantly, the Packers are 3-3 in Region 1-7A, one game ahead of Tift County’s 2-4 for second place.

It was a doubleheader where numerous times the bases were loaded, and a few times innings ended in that manner. It was also a night where Packer boss Tony Kirkland saw a player in junior Henry Daniels make his first major contributions on the varsity level, and those came both at the plate and on the pitcher’s bump.

Tift County Game 1 starting pitcher Joseph Pittman retired the first 11 batters he faced and helped stake himself to an early 3-0 lead with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the second inning.

It’s those first innings that were a problem for Colquitt County to get through for a majority of this 2019 season. While the Packers seemed to buck that trend last weekend in beating Camden County in Game 1 on the road, they gave up two runs to the Blue Devils right away in a frame with two errors. The Blue Devils had one runner on base with one out when Owen Manning reached on a ground ball first bobbled then thrown awry.

Trey Barfield walked to load the bases with two outs, and Mason Avant slipped a single by third base to drive home two.

Following the Pittman home run, Eakins settled down to allow just two base runners over the next four innings. One of those – in the second inning – was on a ball popped up in the infield that nobody could find. However, shortstop Cannon Whatley was alert enough to throw the batter out trying to reach second base.

Alex Bledsoe got Eakins out of third-inning trouble diving for a third-out catch in left field. That was part of strong outfield play Kirkland received with four catches coming from Tucker Hathcock in centerfield.

J.T. Whatley of Colquitt ended Pittman’s perfect game with a two-out double to the left-field wall in the top of the fourth. The Packers did not score then, but staged a big four-run lead-shifting turn in the fifth inning.

It started when catcher Callon Kubiak reached on an error to lead off, and Logan Tostenson hit a ball back to the pitcher. He looked back at the courtesy runner, but wound up getting nobody out. After Pittman did fan Nate Creech for the first out, Reese Bledsoe grounded a single through to score the first Packer run.

Twin brother Alex ripped a solid single to right driving home the second run. Both brothers alertly took the extra base on throws from the outfield, and from that Hathcock was able to tie the game 3-3 on a sacrifice fly.

Cannon Whatley, a freshman, sharply singled past his Tift counterpart to snag Colquitt’s first lead of the day.

The score stayed 4-3 going into the seventh, and Hathcock was on base with two outs when Cannon Whatley drove a ball towards centerfield. Jake Pettis went all out for a diving grab, but the ball went off his glove. It was another RBI for Whatley.

J.T. Whatley followed with his second double of the game and first RBI.

Eakins faced four batters in the bottom of the seventh, giving up a single and a walk but also getting two outs. Turner Sircy, senior left-hander, took over but was greeting by Manning’s RBI single. With the score 6-4, both the tying and winning runs were on base for Barfield, but Sircy induced a first-pitch grounder for the game-ending force out.

GAME 2

Avant started opposite Jeb Johnson of Colquitt in Friday’s nightcap, but Avant quickly gave way to the left-handed Barfield after one inning. It was an inning where the Packers snatched the big early lead of 3-0 on two hits and one error.

Hathcock got things going with a single to center. Cannon Whatley reached on a throwing error, and J.T. Whatley promptly delivered his third extra-base hit of the day. This was a two-run triple, and he would then score on Daniels’ sacrifice fly. Daniels was in the lineup as designated hitter.

Certainly, though, Kirkland and the Packer supporters had to know Tift County could just as easily come back from three runs down as they did in Game 1. The Blue Devils began the ‘chip-away’ process with one run in the home first featuring back-to-back singles amd Pettis scoring on Manning’s sacrifice fly.

Baserunning became something to watch in this game as – still in the first – Thad Weldon doubled only to see Reese Bledsoe cut off Hathcock’s throw and get the ball to Kubiak at the plate in time for the second out.

Cannon Whatley erased a leadoff error in the home second by snatching Pittman’s line drive for a double play.

But the Blue Devils kept putting pressure on Johnson and the Packer defense and got another run across in the third on two hits. Manning always seemed to be due with runners on scoring position, and his single to left drove in that run for 3-2 Packers.

With two outs, Avant walked to load the bases. Barfield hit his first offering only to see Tostenson get to it in right field just shy of the grass.

Barfield the pitcher didn’t give up any hits until Tostenson doubled off the first-base bag to start the fourth. There were Packers on the corners when Alex Bledsoe hit a ball that could have been a double play. The pitcher instead looked to third base then retired Bledsoe. Hathcock made that a costly decision with a two-run hit for 5-2 Colquitt.

Tift filled the bases in the home fourth but did not cash in thanks to Alex Bledsoe’s running catch towards the line in left and Hathcock’s pursuit of Manning’s deep first-pitch drive.

Colquitt added two runs in the sixth, Daniels earning his second RBI on his first hit.

Sircy made his second mound appearance in relief during Tift’s fifth inning, but he ran into sixth-inning difficulties issuing two walks and Pettis’ double off the third-base bag. That loaded the bases for Manning, and he liked the first pitch again, this one for a two-run single and 7-4 game.

Daniels took over pitching with Blue Devils on every base one more time and held them all there taking the game into the seventh.

It was an inning where nearly every active Packer on the roster got into the act and Tift needed three pitchers to get through it. Colquitt’s first run also got Tift to two outs. Six Packers in a row reached base afterwards, including Daniels, who earned two more RBI. He then pitched a scoreless seventh issuing one walk.