VALDOSTA – The Colquitt County baseball team completed its series sweep of Valdosta by winning both games of their Friday doubleheader, keeping hopes alive for a first-round home playoff date.
Colquitt took Friday’s first game 5-1 as Bryce Roberts won his first start of the season.
The Packers then scored six runs in the first inning of the nightcap and went on to claim a 13-3 six-inning run-rule victory.
Combined with Tuesday’s 8-1 victory over the Wildcats, the Packers are now 8-4 in Region 1-6A and tied with Richmond Hill for second place behind 10-2 Lowndes.
The Packers can still finish first or second and play a first-round state playoff series at Packer Park.
After an up-and-down sojourn through its first 12 region games, the Packers face the final three against the team they are tied with in the standings: Richmond Hill.
Those Wildcats just finished off their series sweep of Camden County with 12-1 and 20-10 wins on Friday.
The Colquitt-Richmond Hill series will start with a single game at Richmond Hill on Tuesday, April 8.
The two teams’ region-ending doubleheader is scheduled for April 11, at Packer Park.
If the Packers can get the kind of pitching they had in the three games against Valdosta, they will increase their chances to start the playoffs at home.
Bowen DeRosso started the series by not allowing a hit until the seventh inning of Colquitt’s 8-1 win at home.
In Friday’s first game at Valdosta, Roberts and Cole Holder combined to allow just three hits and no earned runs in the 5-1 victory.
In the Friday’s nightcap, Cook Tompkins, Ross Sparkman and Holder allowed just two earned runs and five hits over six innings.
Roberts dazzled in his first start of the season, allowing just three hits and one unearned run over 5.2 innings.
He walked just one batter.
Holder relieved Roberts with two outs in the sixth and got Blake Bowman to line out to Roberts, who had just moved to third base, to end the inning.
Holder then retired the Wildcats in order in the seventh to clinch the win.
Roberts was given his first start after making nine relief appearances this season. The sophomore right-hander now is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA and two saves.
The Packers scored first when Carter Summerlin singled in Bowen DeRosso, who had reached on a one-out base hit and moved to second when Jake Walker was hit by a pitch.
The Wildcats, who never had a lead in the three games, tied it in the third with an unearned run that scored when Kyler Davis grounded into a 6-3 double play started by Adam Beverly.
And it was Beverly that put some distance between the Packers and Wildcats when he stroked a two-run single in the fifth inning.
A Roberts sacrifice fly later in the inning scored Brady DeRosso to put the Packers up 4-1.
The final Colquitt County run came in the sixth inning when Brady DeRosso doubled in Summerlin, who also had reached on a two-base hit.
The Packers had 10 hits, with Summerlin and Bowen DeRosso each contributing two.
The Packers started quickly in the second game when leadoff hitter Hayden Hembree walked and Brady DeRosso tripled him home.
Beverly’s base hit scored DeRosso and, three batters later, Walker delivered a two-run single to put the Packers up 4-0.
The final two first-inning runs scored on a Valdosta outfield error.
After the Wildcats scored a run in the second, Colquitt added two more in the fourth on singles by Beverly and Bowen DeRosso to extend the lead to 8-1.
Colquitt scored five two-out runs in the top of the sixth to put the game away.
The DeRosso brothers each had two hits in the second game, as did Beverly.
Walker, Roberts and Tyson Hobby also had hits. Walker drove in three runs.
Tompkins pitched into the fifth, when Sparkman, making just his second appearance of the season, was summoned.
The young right-hander gave up a single, but struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
Holder retired the Wildcats in order in the bottom of the sixth to end it.
The senior relief pitcher retired all seven Valdosta batters he faced in the two games on Friday.
Now 10-10 overall, the Packers are scheduled to travel to Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday for games against Nease High at 4 p.m. and Bartram Trail at 7 p.m.
On Thursday, Colquitt will travel to Gainesville, Fla., to take on Buchholz High.
The Bobcats defeated the Packers 5-3 on March 1, at Packer Park.