MOULTRIE – Sophomore left-hander Gavin Steptoe, the crafty kind of pitcher Colquitt County High baseball coach Tony Kirkland said made up his mound staff, won his first varsity start Saturday on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium. Steptoe’s off-balance stuff resulted in nine strikeouts and only two hits allowed over 6 and 1/3 innings, and the Packers won for the first time in the new 2019 season 7-3 against Lambert High of Suwanne.

When Kirkland said youth was an understatement in describing the new-look Packers, it is also an understatement to say the Colquitt offense improved from one game to the next. On Wednesday, the Packers lost 3-0 at Valdosta High with only two hits, those from a new starting outfielder named Lucas Tostenson.

Three days later, Colquitt County was leading 3-0 after just two innings on Lambert’s Longhorns, a program that won both a state and national championship back in the 2014 season.

Of the two hits by Lambert off Steptoe, one of them left Ike Aultman Field. It was in the top of the fourth inning, the score still 3-0 in the Packers’ favor, when the second Longhorn batter reached base (via error). Senior first baseman Jonathan Henings, all of 6-2 and 225 pounds, drilled a pitch over the right-field fence.

But after making it a 3-2 game, what should have been a 1-2-3 bottom-of-the-fourth inning for Lambert in the field turned out to be a one-two-three run inning for the Colquitt offense. Facing a new sidearm pitcher, the first two Packers went down silently bringing up Tucker Hathcock, who occupies the No. 1 spot in Kirkland’s order. Hathcock hit a ball dropped in the outfield, so he raced to second base.

Colquitt accepted the invitation to take more cuts at the plate. Tostenson, down 0-2 in his count but fouling off a few pitches, found a ball to take to right field and place fair inside the line. Hathcock scored, then Tostenson scored as Jaycee Harden put his first offering into shallow left. JT Whatley followed with a double to the left-center gap, and Colquitt took a four-run lead 6-2.

Steptoe struck out the first three batters he faced and set down the first eight overall. He helped himself defensively covering first base for the out after a ball went off Harden’s glove and was picked up by the second baseman Reese Bledsoe. That was leading off the top of the second, and after two more whiffs in the top of the third Lambert’s John Thompson broke up the perfect game with a cue-shot single.

Thompson was caught in a rundown to end the frame.

Following the Henings home run, Steptoe faced seven more Longhorn batters allowing no hits and one walk, a baserunner he picked off in the top of the fifth.

Colquitt’s early 3-0 lead came from one run in the first inning and two in the second. Tostenson was on third base after a pick-off throwing error with two outs, and designated hitter Chance Sealy ripped a solid single to right for 1-0 Packers.

In the second, Colquitt loaded the bases with no outs on one single from catcher Callon Kubiak and Bledsoe’s bunt that Henings dropped trying to make a tag. Hathcock walked on a full-count pitch and Tostenson’s sacrifice fly brought in the second run.

Hathcock, Kubiak and Whatley each had two hits in the game. Whatley singled to right in the bottom of the sixth for his second RBI, matching Tostenson for the team lead.

Eli Faison faced four batters pitching in relief, striking out two and giving up one run.

Colquitt County returns to the Packer Park stadium Monday for a President’s Day special. Tift County is also visiting to play Hillgrove High of Atlanta at 1 p.m., and the Packers take on Hillgrove afterwards.