Diamond Pack defeats Pace 5-4
Feb. 25—VALDOSTA — Less than 24 hours after a seventh-inning rally fell short in a 5-4 loss to Florida Christian from Miami on Friday, the Colquitt County baseball team defeated another band of Patriots from the Sunshine State on Saturday by the same score.
Packers coach Brandon Brock called the 5-4 Georgia/Florida Challenge win over Pace High "huge," and he doesn't appear to have been dealing in hyperbole.
A perennial Florida power, Pace, which is located just outside Pensacola, was 26-4 last year and ranked No. 1 in Class 6A and No. 5 overall in Florida.
But Mason Moore went the distance against the Patriots, allowing just three hits.
Two of the hits were home runs by Jackson McKenzie, a two-run shot, and a solo bomb by Tanner Saul.
Otherwise, Moore, the junior left-hander, allowed just a double to Clifford Musgrove and a pair of walks. He struck out six.
And two of the four runs Pace put up were unearned.
The game was played at Billy Grant Field, the home of the Valdosta State baseball team, and for the second day in a row, Neko Fann opened the Packers' first inning with a single and a steal of second base.
But the Packers were able to move Fann around on Saturday when Cam Cook's single drove him in for a 1-0 lead.
Pace tied the game on Musgrove's double and an infield error in the top of the second, but the Packers regained the lead in the bottom of the inning when Jar'dae Williams tripled and scored on a Hayden Hembree single.
Pace tied the game again in the fifth on the homer by Sauls.
But Colquitt broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth.
Fann drew a walk to open the inning and Moore singled him to third.
Cook doubled to drive in his second and third runs of the game and put Colquitt up 4-2.
After Ethan Allegood walked, a wild pitch moved Cook to third and he scored the crucial insurance run on a single by Asher Cox.
McKenzie's homer in the top of the sixth pulled the Patriots to within a run, but Moore retired Pace in order in the seventh to nail down the win.
The Packers are now 3-4-1. Six of the games have been decided by one run, including all four losses and two of the wins.
Colquitt will try to climb to .500 when they travel to South Georgia State College in Douglas on Monday for a 5 p.m. meeting with Pierce County.
The Bears are off to a 3-4 start, but went 30-6 last season and reached the Class AAA semifinals, where they were eliminated by Redan.
Colquitt will be back to play on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 2, to face Coffee High.
