Juston Lewis | Valdosta Daily TimesMcCage Pruitt slides into home during the fourth inning of Saturday's 6-5 win against Columbus. 

VALDOSTA—Lowndes baseball gutted out a 6-5 win over Columbus in the second day of the Wildcat Invitational. 

After allowing the visiting Blue Devils to score three first inning runs, the Vikings were forced to battle back for the Saturday afternoon victory. 

The tide began to change in the bottom of the fourth where the Vikings were trailing 3-1. 

Lowndes was able to score four runs, largely produced by a RBI double by Sage O’Berry that put them ahead 5-3. 

Columbus was able to put two more runs on the board in the top of the fifth inning to draw even, but a lone run in the bottom of the inning would give the Vikings the advantage needed to win. 

Garrit Fender was deployed to put the game on ice. The Blue Devils would draw blanks in the final two innings and Lowndes would close out the invitational on a winning note. 

“Well, I’ll be honest with you. We did not play great baseball today. We really didn’t,” head coach Ryan Page said after the game. “We still have a lot to work on but at the end of the day I’m just happy they did compete. They got down and competed so I’m happy about that. Too many mistakes. We’ve got to clean that kind of that stuff up and that’s the good news. If we clean those things up we’ve got a shot to be pretty good.” 

Lowndes was outhit 11-7 by Columbus and they had two errors to the Blue Devil’s one, but in the end they dug deep and got another victory. 

“The kids want to play these kind of teams,” Page said about his players. “When they want to play these kind of teams it makes it fun. We got a couple of good hits and moved some guys and did the things we needed to do to compete. At the end of the day it’s fun to watch and it’s always fun to watch when you get a W at the end but we made too many mistakes. We’ve still got a lot to clean up.” 

With two weekend wins under their belts, the Vikings will look to keep their competitive streak against Berrien County on Monday at 5:30 in a home non-region matchup.