Hopper, solid pitching lead Lady Pack to sweep of DH

Published 10:46 am Friday, September 15, 2023

KINGSLAND — Maris Hopper had seven hits and Peyton Arrington and Kamry Paulk turned in solid pitching performances as the Colquitt County softball team swept a Region 1-7A doubleheader on Thursday at Camden County.

After also defeating the Lady Wildcats 9-1 on Thursday in Moultrie, the Lady Packers won all three games of their series with Camden and raised their region record to 4-0.

The Lady Packers took Thursday’s Game 1 by a 6-1 score and won the nightcap 8-3.

Lowndes completed its region sweep of Valdosta on Thursday and also is unbeaten in the region at 3-0.

The Lady Packers will open their three-game series against the Vikettes with a single game at Lowndes on Tuesday.

Lowndes will come to Lady Packer Field on Thursday for a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m.

Colquitt’s girls now will take an 11-6 overall record to Baxley on Saturday when they will meet Appling County at 10 a.m. and Jeff Davis at noon at Appling County High in a pair of non-region games.

Hopper went 7-for-8 in the doubleheader in Kingsland with a pair of doubles, a triple and four runs batted in.

The offensive outburst raised her team-leading batting average to .500. She also leads the team in doubles with nine and in home runs with three.

Libby Wetherington also enjoyed her time on the coast, going 4-for-7 and hitting her first varsity home run in Game 1.

RaJayla McBride also was 4-for-7.

Rheygan Harrell was 4-for-8 in the doubleheader.

Coach Chance Pitts said Rhylee Tillery was robbed of three potential hits by Camden County center fielder Jalyn Nixon.

Game 1 was scoreless through the first four innings before the Lady Packers took the lead with two runs in the top of fifth on a two-out double by Hopper.

Colquitt added two more in the sixth on Wetherington’s homer and another pair in the seventh inning on Burley’s single.

Camden spoiled the shutout by scoring its lone run in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out single by Nixon.

Hopper was 4-for-4 with a double, Wetherington 3-for-4 with a homer and Harrell 2-for-4 in the opener.

McBride, Carli Pearson, Kaden Sutton and Lanie Burley added singles.

Arrington, who was the winning pitcher on Tuesday when she allowed just one unearned run and three hits over six innings, again was efficient on Thursday.

The sophomore right-hander gave up just one run on five hits while striking out 11 batters.

Arrington is now 6-2 with a 2.64 earned run average.

“I’m really proud of her, especially how she lives so much around the zone,” Pitts said of Arrington, who allowed just one walk. “She pitches to contact and lets her defense work.”

Paulk picked up her third win of the season in the second game.

After allowing two runs in the bottom of the first inning, she settled in and gave up just one the rest of the way.

She allowed six hits and struck out four.

Colquitt had scored two runs in the top of the first, but after Camden matched them in the bottom of the inning, the Lady Packers put four on the board in the top of the second.

After two were out, McBride tripled and scored on the throw. After a Pearson single, Hopper tripled her home.

Sutton followed with a two-run homer, her first of the season, and the Lady Packers had a 6-2 lead. Sutton leads the team with 15 RBIs.

Colquitt added single runs in the third on a base hit by McBride and in the sixth when Hopper scored on a Camden County error.

McBride and Hopper were both 3-for-4 in Game 2. Harrell had two hits and Sutton, Burley and Wetherington had the others.

Colquitt did not commit an error in either game and had just one in the three-game series.

“I’m just hoping we can keep this up,” Pitts said. “That is part of the reason I schedule this trip (to Appling County). We’ll get to face one of the best pitchers in the state, made in the country (Appling junior Presley Harrison).”

Pitts says he thinks his team is playing its best softball right now.

“It took us some time,” he said. “We thought it would. We have six girls in new spots. and I’m proud with how the bottom of the lineup is producing now.”