8th-grade to open tournament on Monday at Packer Park

Wayne Grandy, The Moultrie Observer, Ga.
·2 min read

Mar. 18—MOULTRIE — The No. 2-seeded Colquitt County eighth-grade baseball team will open the conference tournament at 4 p.m. Monday against Lowndes at Packer Park.

The 11-3 Packers lost a shot at being the top seed when they were defeated 7-4 by Coffee on Friday at home.

The Colquitt-Lowndes winner will face the Thomas County-Valdosta winner for the championship on Wednesday.

But the Packers appear to have a legitimate shot of winning the tournament, having defeated each of the other three teams at least once.

The Packers, under first-year head coach Ian Brinson and assistant Jarvis Lambright, had little trouble with Lowndes in either of their two meetings with the Vikings, winning 14-4 at home on Feb. 9 and 18-6 on the road on March 9.

Colquitt also has defeated Valdosta twice, 16-5 and 11-9, and split with Thomas County, winning 11-1 and losing 6-5.

On Friday, Coffee scored six runs in the second inning and the Packers could not catch up.

Colquitt, which will take a .372 team batting average into the tournament, only managed doubles by Bowen DeRosso and Carter Penuel and singles by Penuel and Bryce Roberts.

DeRosso drove in both of Colquitt County's runs.

In Friday's second game, Colquitt took an 11-4 lead into the top of the seventh, but Valdosta put five runs on the board before James Horne took over in relief and struck out the final two Wildcats to seal the win.

The Packers exploded for 13 hits against the Wildcats, including four by Carter Summerlin, two of which were doubles.

Summerlin drove in five runs.

Roberts had three hits and Penuel had two, including his first home run of the season.

Davis Wingate pitched the first three innings and gave up two unearned runs while striking out two.

Jake Rowell went the next two innings and did not give up a run or a hit while striking out three.

Heading into the tournament, Roberts is leading the Packers in hitting with a .560 average. He has seven doubles, a triple and has driven in 18 runs.

DeRosso is hitting .455 and leads the team in RBIs with 23. He has three doubles, a triple and a home run.

Jackson Edwards is hitting .421 with four doubles and is second on the team with 20 RBIs.

Summerlin is hitting .432 with seven doubles and 17 runs driven in.

Penuel has a pair of doubles and a homer and its hitting .429.

Expected to do the pitching for the Packers are DeRosso, Roberts, Edwards and Judson Taylor.