MOULTRIE – Region 1-7A baseball for both Colquitt County High and Lowndes High began Friday with a doubleheader on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium.

Outfielder Tanner Wilson, Tony Kirkland’s No. 9 hitter, delivered the Game 1 winning base hit in the bottom of the sixth inning, but then the Packer defense had issues handling the Lowndes small-ball strategy in Game 2. Wilson’s two-run single broke a 2-2 tie to lead Colquitt to victory 4-2, and Viking hurler Wyatt Fender struck out eight in a complete-game four-hitter as the Vikings won 2-1.

The Packers go into the new week with a 5-8 record. The week will include a non-region home game Tuesday with Coffee High at 6 p.m.

There were developments brewing even before lineup cards could be exchanged in the late afternoon hours. Kirkland planned to use senior Buck Blalock on the mound to start Game 1, but Blalock suffered a pulled oblique muscle during warm-ups and had to be scratched both as a pitcher and hitter for the doubleheader. The emergency pitching start went to another senior, Wheeler Hunnicut. He faced off with Lowndes left-handed sophomore Dalton Smith. Both pitchers gave their respective coaches what would be called a quality start.

Colquitt’s winning pitcher was senior Hayden Bledsoe. He worked the top of the sixth inning and pitched out of a bases-loaded situation to keep the game tied 2-2. Bledsoe walked three, including the leadoff batter. Throughout Lowndes’ visit to Moultrie, the Vikings executed their sacrifice bunts, and catcher Colby Hall moved his teammate into scoring position.

Bledsoe fanned Lowndes’ pinch-hitter, but then walked back-to-back Vikings to fill all bases with two outs. That brought the leadoff Viking, first baseman C.J. Rose, to the plate. Bledsoe got ahead in the count 1-2 before inducing a comeback grounder to retire the side.

To start the Packer half of the sixth, it was Bledsoe’s turn. He produced a base hit. With one out, shortstop Gavin Patel drove the baseball to dead centerfield. Fender, in this position for Game 1, played shallow most of the game, and on this occasion it cost him, for Patel was able to leg out a double.

Lowndes held both runners in scoring position while getting the second out, so it was up to Wilson. He knocked both home on the single to left, setting up not only Bledsoe for a win, but big John Samuel Shenker for a save.

Shenker, in the top of the seventh, gave up a leadoff single up the middle to Dalton Hart. But Austin Singletary snagged Will Tolbert’s line drive at second base for an easy double play.

Hunnicut worked five complete innings with two strikeouts, six hits scattered and two walks. He gave up an unearned run in the top of the second as Smith – batting right handed – doubled with one out. There were two down when Smith advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error.

Lowndes went ahead 2-0 in the fourth when Tolbert led off with a single. Tyson Shaw went the opposite way on 0-2 for a hit, and Smith bunted both to scoring position. Hall, on 3-2, muscled the baseball to right field bringing home one run.

Though Hunnicut walked the bases full, he took a comeback grounder for the easy final out to first.

Colquitt County’s offense left three runners on base through the first three turns. Logan Wheeler, off a four-hit game at Lee County Wednesday, doubled in his first appearance. Raines Plant also doubled as the leadoff batter in the second.

It wasn’t until the home fourth that the Packers not only scored, but leveled things up 2-2. Bledsoe followed Shenker’s leadoff walk with a double to left-center. Patel singled in the first run, and it was Hunnicut at the plate tying the game while hitting into a fielder’s choice.

GAME 2

The region nightcap was even more of a pitching dual between Fender and Packer junior Ethan Phillips. While Fender went the distance, Phillips pitched six full innings with nine strikeouts, two hits allowed and one walk. He retired the first 11 Vikings he faced with six of his whiffs before hitting a batter in the top of the fourth.

The shutout and no-hitter were in tact going into the top of the fifth, but Smith put up the visitors’ first safety leading off. He was sacrificed to second base and took third on a wild pitch. With runners on the corner bags, John Retterbush put the squeeze bunt in play. Phillips threw the baseball past his catcher Jay Saunders, and Lowndes was on the scoreboard with two more sitting in scoring position.

Fender struck out swinging on a ball up in the zone, and Patel cut off Rose’s grounder going up the middle for a smooth third-out throw.

The Packers, against Fender, had two hits without scoring in the first, those coming from Wheeler and Shenker. Fender recorded outs on nine straight hitters before giving up a double to Bledsoe in the fourth. But the home team was still looking for a run – and a tying run at that – in the fifth. That turn began with a walk, one of only two Fender allowed.

Designated hitter Ian Brinson put down his bunt successfully, and with two down Saunders worked a full count in order to deliver his first hit of the day. He sent the game into the sixth knotted at 1-1.

Lowndes quickly got that run back, and it was unearned. Hart led off with a base hit, and Tolbert put down the sacrifice bunt. It’s one the Packers also threw away, and Hart raced all the way back to the plate.

Phillips struck out two to get out of the sixth, then turned the seventh over to Patel. Though he surrendered a hit to Hall, Plant at third base and Hunnicut at second turned a double play.

Fender struck out four without giving up a hit or a run in his last two frames.