Diamond Pack falls to Cairo on Senior Night

Published 9:56 am Thursday, March 9, 2023

MOULTRIE – It was a disappointing Senior Night performance on Wednesday for the Colquitt County baseball team, which is only two games away from opening Region 1-7A play.

After Colquitt honored the six senior members of the program in the annual pre-game ceremony, Cairo scored a run in the first inning and five more in the third for a 6-0 lead and the Packers could not catch up, falling 8-4 on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium.

The Packers are now 4-6 as they prepare to meet a pair of strong Florida programs on Friday and Saturday at Lowndes.

Then, Camden County will visit Packer Park at 6 p.m. next Tuesday for the first region game, followed by a doubleheader between the Packers and Wildcats in Kingsland on Friday, March 17.

The Packers managed just five hits and committed three costly throwing errors in the loss to the Syrupmakers, a team they had defeated in Cairo 5-4 on Feb. 15.

“We just weren’t ready to play,” said coach Brandon Brock. “We were focused on everything else except getting ready to play.

“And Cairo has gotten better since we saw them before.”

Before scoring three runs in the sixth inning, the Packers had managed just one run in their previous 12 innings.

They dropped their previous game 8-1 to Coffee, also at home, last Thursday. The Saturday game against Buchholz High in Gainesville, Fla., was rained out.

Senior Kale Hooper started on the mound for the Packers on Wednesday and gave up an unearned run on a two-out throwing error in the first inning.

He then retired seven in a row before giving up a walk, a double and single to open the the fourth inning.

All three of those runners scored, plus two more that reached against Ethan Allegood before he finally retired the side.

The Packers cut the Syrupmakers lead in half in the bottom of the sixth against Robert Watson, who had replaced Elijah Anderson, the Cairo starter who had given up no runs and just two hits.

Jaxson Chambers drove in one of the three Colquitt County runs with a single and senior Landon Griffin, getting his first start of the season after battling a sore hamstring, sent another teammate home with his first hit of the season, a two-out double.

The other run scored on a delayed double steal.

But Cairo added two more runs, both unearned, in the top of the seventh and while the Packers managed to send the potential tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning, the rally fell short.

Neko Fann had a double and single and scored two of his team’s four runs.

Griffin added his double and Chambers and Marcus Moore had singles.

Brock said he and his staff are getting a better understanding of their team’s strengths and weaknesses.

“That’s what the first 10-12 games are for,” he said. “We’re going to go back, restructure and refocus and get ready for region.”

The final two games before Camden County comes to town will not be against cupcakes.

Bartram Trail, which will visit from St. Johns, will bring a 3-3 record into its 5 p.m. Friday meeting with the Packers.

But the Bears were 21-9 last year and were ranked No. 19 in Florida. They were 22-6 in 2021.

St. Johns Country Day, which will come from Orange Park, is 6-1 and the Spartans won a combined 47 games the past two seasons.

That game will start at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.

“They are down right now,” Brock said about his team after the loss to Cairo. “And they should be down right now.

“But we’ll be OK. If we can be competitive (Friday and Saturday) like we were against Florida Christian and Pace, I’ll be happy. We are not going to abandon them. As long as we play well in April and May, no one’s going to remember this.”

The seniors who were honored on Friday were Kale Hopper, Jar’dae Williams, Landon Griffin, Miller Tompkins, Tucker Sparkman and manager Olivia Morse.