8th-graders win, advance to championship game

Published 8:32 pm Wednesday, March 22, 2023

MOULTRIE – There were several bang-bang plays in the Thomas County-Colquitt County eighth-grade baseball game on Wednesday at Packer Park.

The most important one went Colquitt County’s way in the bottom of the seventh, giving the Packers a 4-3 win and the opportunity to play host to Hahira at 5 p.m. Friday in the conference championship game.

With the score tied 3-3 and Eli Johnson on second with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Bryce Roberts hit a ground ball that the Yellow Jacket second baseman fielded cleanly and threw to first.

But instead of the final out that would have sent the game into extra innings, the throw pulled the Yellow Jacket first baseman slightly off the bag.

He tried several times in quick succession to get his foot on the base, but Roberts was ruled to have beaten the throw as Johnson, who never quit running, crossed the plate with the winning run.

The two umpires conferred for several minutes after the play, but the original “safe” signal was upheld and Packers knew they would be playing for the championship.

When word reached the field moments later that Hahira had defeated Coffee, the Packers were guaranteed to play for title in front of their home fans.

The eighth-graders will take a 13-3 record into the game against the Vikings, who dealt Colquitt one of those three losses last Thursday by an 8-6 score in Lowndes County.

The win over Thomas County was the second in a row in the tournament for the Packers, who were denied the top seed when they were defeated by Coffee 7-4 last Friday.

Colquitt eliminated Lowndes 15-5 on Monday.

The Packers jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the bottom of the second when Bowen DeRosso led off with a triple to right and scored on a single by Jackson Edwards.

The lead remained at 1-0 after Edwards was picked off of first base and Davis Wingate struck out.

But Judson Taylor and Johnson followed with singles and both scored on an error by the Thomas County shortstop.

The Yellow Jackets had managed just two hits and four baserunners over the first five innings against Edwards, the Colquitt County starter.

But after the first two Yellow Jacket batters reached on infield singles, Edwards was lifted in favor of Bowen DeRosso.

After the runners moved up on stolen bases, a DeRosso wild pitch plated the first Thomas County run and a single by Yellow Jackets catcher Dom McCann, who ended up at second on an error in left field, drove in the second.

Will Griner reached on a perfect bunt and moved to second on defensive indifference to put runners on second and third.

After DeRosso struck out Drake McLeod, Mason Cato singled to right to score McCann with the tying run, but Johnson’s throw from right field to catcher Carter Summerlin was just in time to retire Griner at the plate for the second out.

And the inning ended when Summerlin threw to Carter Penuel at second base to get Cato trying to move up on the throw to plate.

The Packers had one baserunner in the bottom of the sixth, but could not cash him in.

And DeRosso retired the Yellow Jackets in order in top of the seventh on a strikeout, a come-backer and another strikeout.

The Packers then took advantage of the poor throw in the bottom the seventh to get the win.

Both teams had seven hits.

For the Packers, Taylor had two and Penuel, Roberts, DeRosso, Johnson and Horne had the others.

DeRosso got the win after giving up a run on three hits in the sixth inning. He struck out four.

Edwards went five-plus innings and gave up four hits, only one of which left the infield, and both runs, only one of which was earned. He struck out one.

Neither Edwards nor DeRosso walked a batter.