Pack holds off Calhoun in 9-4 win

Published 7:29 am Friday, April 7, 2023

MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County baseball team jumped out to a 9-1 lead and survived some sometimes shaky defense to defeat Calhoun 9-4 on Thursday on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium.

The win raised the Packers overall record to 11-12 and evened its Spring Break record at 1-1 heading into Friday’s 2 p.m. game at Coffee.

Colquitt will be back at Packer Park at 2:45 p.m. Saturday to meet Tallahassee’s Lincoln High in its final non-region game of the season.

The Packers will travel to Richmond Hill on Tuesday to begin its final Region 1-7A series of the season and will be home to close out the regular season with with what could be a consequential doubleheader against the Wildcats next Friday.

The Packers are still in the running for a second-place finish in the region that would enable them to play host to a first-round state playoff series.

Calhoun made the long trip from Gordon County in far north Georgia on Thursday and immediately took a 1-0 first-inning lead against Colquitt County sophomore starter Cole Holder.

But Holder was in control the next four innings.

After giving up a single and a double in the first, he allowed just two more infield hits and an unearned run the rest of the way and departed with an 8-1 lead.

The Yellow Jackets scored two more unearned runs off sophomore left-hander Gabe Eubanks in the sixth before Mason Moore needed just seven pitches – all strikes – to retire Calhoun in order in the seventh.

The Packers took the lead in the bottom of the first when the first four batters reached.

Neko Fann led off with a double to right and moved to third when Landon Griffin reached on a third-strike wild pitch.

Moore and Cam Cook followed with RBI singles.

The Packers batted around in the second, giving Holder, making his first varsity start, a comfortable cushion.

The Packers had just one hit in the five-run uprising, but it was a two-run double by Cook.

Moore had a sacrifice fly in the inning and both he and Cook finished the evening having driven in three runs.

Moore also had a two-out RBI single in the third.

The final Colquitt County run scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning.

The Packers mustered eight hits, including two each by Griffin, Moore and Cook. Fann and Hayden Hembree had the others.

The Packers committed four errors, but were saved from at least three others by sparkling glove work at first base by Jake Walker and Miller Tompkins.

Calhoun, which plays in Region 7-5A, falls to 9-12 and will conclude a Spring Break trip to South Georgia by playing at Thomas County Central at 1 p.m. Friday.

Holder’s fine performance against Calhoun followed a three-inning, no-run relief effort in his varsity debut against Valdosta on March 29.

The right-hander now has pitched eight innings and has a win and a save while allowed just six hits and two runs, only one of which was earned.

Colquitt will try to even both its overall record and its 2023 series against Coffee when it travels to Douglas.

The Trojans had little trouble with the Packers back on March 2, winning 8-1 at Packer Park.

Coffee is 12-11 and 4-5 in Region 1-5A.