Jackets down Class 7A Lowndes

Jeff Davis High upset Class 7A Lowndes County Monday in Hazlehurst as senior left fielder Carter Mullis’ RBI single in the bottom of the seventh lifted the Jackets to a 4-3 win over the 2nd ranked team in Class 7A.
The win was the 10th straight for Coach Paul Glass’ Yellow Jackets, giving them a 10-7 record.
The teams entered the bottom of the seventh knotted at 3-3. Alex Mason opened the inning with a scorching grounder just inside the third base bag. On the fourth pitch to Mullis, Mason stole second base and Mullis then lofted a liner to left, driving in Mason with the winning run.
Last week, the Jackets had three sterling pitching performances from Mullis, Mason and Colby Beach. Monday, Andrew Hulett made it four straight sterling performances as he scattered eight hits, fanning 11 Vikings, and left the mound after six innings with a 3-2 lead.
Jackson Sayer went to the mound to close out the seventh but quickly ran into trouble. After a pair of singles sandwiched around a fly out, an error on a grounder loaded the bases with one out. Sayer then threw a wild pitch that sent the tying run across the plate.
After a walk loaded the bases again, shortstop Eli Saunders fielded a deep liner and threw to catcher Dylan Carelock who leaped high to make the catch and came down on the plate for a force out. The next batter hit a grounder to second baseman Ethan Picanso who threw to Duke Stone at first for the final out, and Sayer got out of the inning giving up only one run.
Jeff Davis took a 1-0 lead in the third as Duke Stone hit a high, solo homerun to left.
The 4th inning saw a close call go against the Jackets as Lowndes’ Coleman Lewis led off with a double and the next batter grounded to the mound. White quickly spun and threw to Saunders at second to catch Lewis off the bag. But the umpire called him safe which sent Glass to the mound for a heated discussion. White struck out the next two batters but a yielded a 2-run double to the next batter to give Lowndes a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, Sayer walked and White laid down a sacrifice bunt. But the throw got past the first baseman, Sayer scored all the way from first to tie the game and White wound up at third. After Malachi Smith came on to run for White, Saunders hit a line drive out to left and the throw to home held up Smith. When the throw sailed over the catcher’s head, Smith scrambled to home and scored on a head-first slide to put JD up 3-2.
That set the stage for the 7th inning dramatics.
Score by innings:
LCHS 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 -3
JDHS 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 -4