VALDOSTA –– On a cold, wet, muggy 56-degree night in South Georgia, bats were no match for Mother Nature.

Despite a 30-minute delay for heavy fog, the Valdosta Wildcats (7-2) held on for a 6-5 win in five innings against Frederica Academy (2-4) Wednesday night.

Clinging to a 6-5 advantage with two Knights on base and one out, the ‘Cats were able to turn a critical double-play to get out of the top of the fifth. As infielder Reed Reagin came to the play, the officials deemed the fog was too much to try to finish the game –– allowing the ‘Cats to escape with the victory.

“Winning baseball games is fun, right? Any time you win a game, you’re excited for your kids,” Porter said. “Visibility was a big issue. It’s very, very tough in the batter’s box –– just the ball coming out of that fog and it was just a tough day to see the ball. And of course, (Frederica) threw a real soft lefty (pitcher) at us so we were having to sit and wait and it’s tough to sit and wait on a guy and you’re not picking the ball up at all because it’s coming out of the fog.

“We did enough. We did enough to win the baseball game. I’m proud of the kids for competing. I’m just glad nobody got hurt though, because it really got bad.”

The ‘Cats led 6-2 following a three-run third inning to take a commanding lead heading into the fifth inning. With early-afternoon rain showers passing through the area and the temperature dropping steadily into the 50s, fog enveloped Bazemore Field and grew so thick Valdosta outfielders had a hard time fielding pop-ups and if they stood still, they all but disappeared in the mist.

The Knights put together a rally in the top of the fifth as Tyler Devlin led off with a double followed by an RBI single by Deke Jernigan to cut the Valdosta lead to 6-3. Another single by the Knights kept the momentum going. Cameron Gardner delivered a sac fly RBI to pull Frederica with two runs, 6-4. Another single by Mason McGraw dropped in in the outfield as Valdosta’s Colby Thomas lost the ball in the fog and the ball dropped in to put another man on base for the Knights. Harry Veal drew a walk from Rome to load the bases then walked Denver Anthony to bring a run across to make it a 6-5 ballgame.

Struggling with condensation on the ball, ‘Cats pitcher Justin Rome unraveled after a solid start to the game –– prompting Valdosta coach Brad Porter to replace him with reliever Chris Scarborough just before umpires convened and decided to delay the game in hopes of the fog dissipating.

“Chris Scarborough is a guy that we believe can come in and get ground balls,” Porter said of making the switch with Rome battling the conditions. “He was the perfect guy for that (double-play) situation –– just throws the ball down in the zone with a lot of movement and he came in and got a ground ball to Briggs Bennett and him and Cory (McCann) are a very good double-play combination. We turned it and got out of the inning and really, that play secured the W.

“I think (Rome) was having a little bit of trouble with the moisture and having a grip on the ball so he left the ball up. As he was having that issue of not really having a good grip on the ball and leaving it up and not trusting anything except throwing a fast ball –– high school hitters can hit fastballs, especially when you’re not mixing something else in.”

An RBI by Bennett in the bottom of the second inning scored Scarborough to put Valdosta in front 2-0. A two-run home run by Gardner tied the game at 2 in the top of the third, but the ‘Cats recovered well –– Thomas scored to give the ‘Cats a 3-2 lead. A Jude Ard base hit followed by a walk issued to Elijah Guilliams and a Rome single set the stage for the ‘Cats to add another run.

Bennett drew a walk to load the bases and a wild pitch to Reagin brought in two runs to put Valdosta ahead 5-2 in the bottom of the third inning.

UP NEXT

Valdosta hosts Madison County on Friday. Porter talked about the significance of the matchup following Wednesday’s win.

“A very athletic team that has very good pitching,” Porter said of the Cowboys. “So far, this year, they’ve put up a lot of runs so it’s gonna be a stiff challenge for us. We’re gonna have to play well. They’re very, very well-coached –– one of my former players, Jason Fletcher, is the head coach down there and does a great job. They’ve played for the state championship down in Florida the last two years and came up short both times but it’s just going to be an extremely well-prepared team. It’ll be a region type of opponent, a region type atmosphere, I hope.”