MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County baseball team honored its seniors, won its 15th game of the season and learned who its first-round state playoff opponent will be on an eventful Thursday night at Packer Park.
The Packers never trailed as they defeated Cairo 8-3 in what is likely to be the last game for those seniors on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium.
Colquitt, now 15-13 and winners of three games in a row, will travel to Zebulon today for a non-region doubleheader against 13-13 Pike County from Region 2-AA.
Those two games will close out the regular season and send the Packers to Marietta to meet Walton in the first round of the state playoffs.
The three-game series with the Raiders will start with a 4:30 p.m. Wednesday doubleheader. If the teams split, they would meet again at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The 21-7 Raiders are the Region 5 runners-up.
They also are ranked No. 4 in Class 6A and No. 11 in Georgia by MaxPreps.
Colquitt has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2022, when the Packers reached the state Elite Eight.
The current seniors were freshmen in 2022 and have played for three coaches since then.
But this season, after Colquitt’s 3-6 start, the seniors have helped the team win 12 of its last 19 games.
Colquitt missed qualifying for a home state playoff series by one win.
“We’ve been getting better and better as the year’s gone on,” first-year coach Ryan Strickland said.
Much of that improvement can be attributed to the play of seniors Ethan Allegood, Adam Beverly, Jaxon Chambers, Brady DeRosso, Hayden Hembree, Gabe Eubanks, Cole Holder, Rylan Howell, Ross Sparkman, Cook Tompkins and Jake Walker, who were introduced before the game.
Tompkins built on his seven-inning shutout effort against Richmond Hill on April 11, by allowing the Syrupmakers just one run and three hits over the first four innings on Thursday.
Sparkman pitched the fifth and allowed just one unearned run and junior Owen Bennett pitched the final two innings and allowed the final Cairo run.
The Packers were coming off a 9-6 home victory over Bainbridge on Monday that was led by Beverly’s four hits.
Cairo appeared to have jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Thursday when Cannon Maige doubled and Will Cox singled him home.
But a Colquitt County player noticed that the bat that Cox used had pine tar higher than the 18-inch allowed limit and, after a discussion between the coaches and umpires, Cox was ruled out and the run was taken off the scoreboard.
The Packer scored three times in the bottom of the second when Tyson Hobby, Carter Summerlin and Tompkins strung together one-out singles, with Tompkins’ hit driving in Hobby.
Two batters later, Rylan Howell walked with the bases loaded to put the Packers up 2-0.
Jackson Edwards, running for Tompkins, scored on a wild pitch and the Packers led 3-0.
Colquitt added two more in the third when Bryce Roberts was hit by a pitch and scored on Summerlin’s triple to center field.
The Packers scored again later in the inning on a wild pitch.
In the fourth, the Packers extended their lead to 7-1 when Roberts doubled and scored on a wild pitch.
Hobby then walked, went to third on a pair of wild pitches and scored on Summerlin’s sacrifice fly.
The final Colquitt run came in the fifth when Beverly singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Roberts single to right.
And while it was Senior Night, the Packers got strong performances from their two sophomores.
Summerlin, the Packers catcher, had two hits, including the triple that just missed being his third home run of the season, and two runs batted in.
And with two outs in the top of the sixth, Summerlin also picked a Syrupmaker runner off third base that led to a rundown and the final out of the inning.
Roberts had a double and a single and drove in a run.
Beverly, Hobby and Tompkins had the other hits.
In Monday’s victory over Bainbridge, sophomore Bowen DeRosso was solid on the mound allowed just one run and two hits over the first four innings.
The Packers jumped out to a 7-0 lead then had to hold off the Bearcats.
In addition to the four hits by Beverly, the Packers got two hits each from Summerlin, Howell and Jake Walker.
Bowen DeRosso had a double and Howell added a single.
One of Walker’s hits was a double.