MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County baseball team split a seven-hour doubleheader with Tift County on Friday at Packer Park setting up a crucial series with Valdosta.
The Packers won the first game 7-6 on Friday scoring the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning.
But Colquitt was unable to carry any momentum from the dramatic win into the second game, falling behind 8-1 after three innings en route to an 11-4 loss.
The nightcap also featured a disruption in play when the lights at Ike Aultman Field and Jerry Croft Stadium went out with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of the second game.
The lights, which apparently were on a timer that caused them to shut off at 11 p.m., came back on about 15 minutes later and the game resumed.
The final out came at nearly 11:30 p.m. The doubleheader started at 4:30 p.m.
The Packers, who dropped two of the three games against the Blue Devils, fall to 5-4 and into a tie with Richmond Hill for third place in Region 1-6A.
Valdosta, which will come to Packer Park on Tuesday to start a three-game series with Colquitt County, is 3-6 and in fifth place.
Only the top four teams will advance to the state tournament.
Camden County, 0-9, has series with Richmond Hill and Tift County remaining and will struggle to avoid being left out of the playoffs.
Colquitt could help its postseason aspirations by taking care of business against Valdosta.
The Packers appeared headed for a loss in Game 1 on Friday when Tift County’s Tyler Van Sumeren hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning to give the Blue Devils a 6-2 lead.
But the Packers took advantage of three walks, two hit batsmen, just one hit and a game-tying wild pitch to score four times in the bottom of the seventh.
It was catcher Hayden Hembree who scored the game-tying run on the wild pitch.
Hembree scored the winning run two innings later, also on a wild pitch.
In between Hembree’s game-tying and game-winning runs, Bryce Roberts pitched two innings of scoreless relief.
Hembree opened the bottom of the ninth by drawing a walk from Blue Devils relief pitcher Jace Long.
Brady DeRosso followed with a bunt single that put runners on first and second with none out.
Adam Beverly then put down a perfect sacrifice bunt to put the winning run 90 feet away.
The Blue Devils walked Roberts to load the bases.
But the first pitch to Jake Walker got away from Tift County catcher Sam Pritchard and Hembree raced home with the winning run at 7:44 p.m., three hours and 14 minutes after the first pitch.
Both teams had plenty of opportunities to put the game away before the ninth inning.
The Packers and Blue Devils combined to leave 29 batters stranded in the nine innings.
Colquitt left bases loaded three times; Tift County, once. The Blue Devils left two runners on four times.
Starter Cook Tompkins and relievers Cole Holder and Roberts held the Blue Devils to just five hits, but combined to walk 12 batters.
Tift County pitchers issued 11 bases on balls.
Holder pitched well in relief of starter Cook Tompkins until he hit a batter, issued an intentional walk to John Davis and surrendered the home run over the right field fence to Van Sumeren with two out in the seventh.
The Packers had 10 hits, including two each by Hembree, Brady DeRosso and Carter Penuel.
Beverly, Jake Walker, Tyson Hobby and Rylan Howell had the others.
The Blue Devils took advantage of Van Sumeren’s second homer of the evening and four straight walks to score three runs in the top of the first inning of the second game.
Tift left fielder Mac Brooks added a sacrifice fly in the second inning and a two-run triple in the third inning as the Blue Devils extended their lead to 8-1.
The Packers were down 11-1 before scoring a run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single by Beverly.
Colquitt added the final two runs in the extended bottom of the seventh.
A highlight for the Packers in Game 2 was the pitching of Carter Penuel, who went the final 3.1 innings and did not give up a run.
Colquitt had just seven hits in the nightcap, including a double and a single by Brady DeRosso.
Hembree, Beverly, Walker Howell and Bowen DeRosso added singles.
Seven Colquitt County pitchers combined to issue 21 walks in the two games.
After sweeping its three-game set with Camden County, Lowndes sits atop of the region standings with an 8-1 record.
Tift County, now 6-3, is alone in second place.