Diamond Pack gets to 4-4-1

Published 9:44 pm Monday, February 27, 2023

MOULTRIE — After enduring a pair of one-run losses to Lee County and Florida Christian, the Colquitt County baseball team defeated Pace (Fla.) on Saturday and Pierce County on Monday to raise its record to 4-4-1.

The Packers reached the .500 mark on Monday defeating the Bears 6-4 in a game played at South Georgia State College.

And, as usual, the top three hitters in the Packers lineup inflicted plenty of damage.

Neko Fann, Mason Moore and Cam Cook combined to go 4-for-9, score four runs and drive in five.

But that is par for the course for the three juniors over the first nine games of the season.

Fann is hitting .423 with three doubles, a triple and six runs batted in; Moore is hitting .379 with three doubles, a triple and eight RBIs; and Cook is hitting .333 with four doubles, a triple and seven runs batted in.

The trio’s fine work at the plate made a winner of junior right-hander Garron Wingate, who went the first four-plus innings and and was charged with three runs, but did not give up a hit. He did walk six and hit a batter.

Christian Hill relieved Wingate in the fifth and got the save. He gave up a run and all three Pierce hits.

Colquitt County 5, Pace 4

Less than 24 hours after a seventh-inning rally fell short in a 5-4 loss to Florida Christian from Miami on Friday, the Colquitt County baseball team defeated another band of Patriots from the Sunshine State on Saturday by the same score.

Packers coach Brandon Brock called the 5-4 Georgia/Florida Challenge win over Pace High “huge,” and he doesn’t appear to have been dealing in hyperbole.

A perennial Florida power, Pace, which is located just outside Pensacola, was 26-4 last year and ranked No. 1 in Class 6A and No. 5 overall in Florida.

But Mason Moore went the distance against the Patriots, allowing just three hits.

Two of the hits were home runs by Jackson McKenzie, a two-run shot, and a solo bomb by Tanner Saul.

Otherwise, Moore, the junior left-hander, allowed just a double to Clifford Musgrove and a pair of walks. He struck out six.

And two of the four runs Pace put up were unearned.

The game was played at Billy Grant Field, the home of the Valdosta State baseball team, and for the second day in a row, Neko Fann opened the Packers’ first inning with a single and a steal of second base.

But the Packers were able to move Fann around on Saturday when Cam Cook’s single drove him in for a 1-0 lead.

Pace tied the game on Musgrove’s double and an infield error in the top of the second, but the Packers regained the lead in the bottom of the inning when Jar’dae Williams tripled and scored on a Hayden Hembree single.

Pace tied the game again in the fifth on the homer by Sauls.

But Colquitt broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth.

Fann drew a walk to open the inning and Moore singled him to third.

Cook doubled to drive in his second and third runs of the game and put Colquitt up 4-2.

After Ethan Allegood walked, a wild pitch moved Cook to third and he scored the crucial insurance run on a single by Asher Cox.

McKenzie’s homer in the top of the sixth pulled the Patriots to within a run, but Moore retired Pace in order in the seventh to nail down the win.

Florida Christian 5, Colquitt County 4

MOULTRIE — Colquitt County’s four-run seventh inning wasn’t enough to lift the Packers over visiting Florida Christian on Friday, but the team’s performance impressed coach Brandon Brock.

Trailing 5-0 to the Patriots, who brought a lineup that featured seven college-committed players from Miami for the Georgia-Florida Challenge, the Packers got consecutive two-out doubles from Neko Fann, Mason Moore and Cam Cook to pull to within a run in the seventh before falling short.

“I’m more proud of these guys now than I was after the two games we’ve won,” said Brock, the Packers second-year coach. “We came in down by five to a team with two or three Division I guys. We took a massive step forward today.

“We’ve got some young pups who haven’t been in that situation before, but they competed and they grew.”

It’s hard to image Colquitt facing a tougher starting pitcher on Saturday than Florida Christian’s Lazaro Collera, the University of Miami-committed right-hander who shut the Packers out on four hits over the first 5.2 innings while striking out 10.

Fann and Moore led off the game with consecutive singles, but then Collera’s fastball, which has been clocked at 93 mph, became more than the Packers could handle.

After Collera issued his only walk with two outs in the sixth, he was lifted in favor of Lucas Rodriguez, who needed just one pitch to get an infield roller and get out of the inning.

But trying to protect a 5-0 lead, Rodriguez walked Brady DeRosso to open the bottom of the seventh and, one out later, hit Cayden Parker with a pitch.

DeRosso moved to third on a throwing error and scored the Packers first run on Hayden Hembree’s ground out.

But Fann then doubled off the fence in left — his third hit of the game — to score Parker to make it 5-2 and Moore missed a homer to right by a couple of feet to send Fann scampering home.

After Cook followed with a double down the left field line to score Moore and pull the Packers to within one, Nick Pino replaced Rodriguez and got the final out.

Lee County 7, Colquitt County 6

In a game in which the Colquitt County pitching staff allowed 10 bases on balls and hit three Lee County batters with pitches, the Packers were fortunate to have forged a 6-6 tie through seven innings on Feb. 21, on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium. But Lee County turned two singles and their final walk into a run in the top of the eighth inning and the Packers could not muster one in the bottom of the inning and the Trojans headed back to Leesburg with a 7-6 victory.

The Trojans also won by one run, 4-3, in the season-opener between the two schools. In their home-opener, the Packers trailed 6-2 before they also took advantage of some Lee County largess to tie the game with a four-run sixth inning.

Colquitt got five walks, a hit batsman and a throwing error on sacrifice bunt in the inning.

But no hits.

And while issuing the 10 walks, Colquitt County’s Christian Hill, Cam Cook, Mason Moore and Ethan Allegood also combined to strike out 13 Lee County batters.

And Colquitt had a chance to win in regulation, but left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh.

The Trojans had to have felt fortunate to have come away with their fourth-straight win after stranding 14 runners.

Yes, it was that kind of game.