KINGSLAND – The Colquitt County baseball team needed just five innings to defeat Camden County 11-0 on Tuesday in the teams’ Region 1-6A opener.
The three-game region series will move to Packer Park on Friday for a doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m.
A sweep of the two games on Friday on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium would get the Packers up to .500 for the first time this season.
And would give them a 3-0 record in region play.
Hayden Hembree had three hits, including a pair of doubles, and drove in two runs as the Packers raised their overall record to 4-6.
Camden County also is 4-6.
Hembree’s first double led off the game for the Packers and he later scored on an error to give starting pitcher Bowen DeRosso the only run he would need.
DeRosso allowed just three hits – all singles – and walked one batter while striking out seven Wildcats.
Of the sophomore right-hander’s 77 pitches, 54 were strikes.
He raised his record to 2-0 and lowered his earned run average to 2.02.
The Packers added three more runs in the second inning, courtesy of two Camden County errors and a run-scoring double by Hembree.
Colquitt broke the game open in the top of the fourth, scoring six times.
Rylan Howell and Adam Beverly had run-scoring singles in the inning.
Hembree’s final hit of the game, a two-out single in the top of the fifth, closed out the scoring.
Beverly, Howell, Brady DeRosso, Bryce Roberts and Tyson Hobby had the other Packers hits.
It also raised Colquitt County catcher’s batting average to .343 over the Packers first 10 games of the season.
In the other Tuesday region-openers, Tift County defeated Valdosta 10-0 in five innings and Lowndes edged Richmond Hill 3-2.