Valdosta’s Seth Shuman keeps Lee County from capturing region baseball crown

LEESBURG — Garrett Suiter spoke sternly in the team huddle as Lee County came up for its final at bat Friday night in a key Region 1-AAAAAA game.

But against Valdosta High School ace Seth Shuman, the senior right-hander set down the meat of the batting order to deny Lee County a chance to clinch the Region 1-AAAAAA title outright. Shuman hurled a complete-game gem and the Wildcats took a 4-1 victory on a cool, dreary evening.

The Trojans (19-5 overall, 8-2 region) can capture the region crown Tuesday night with a victory at Colquitt County or sooner if the Packers fall at Tift County today in a game that was rescheduled from Friday night.

Lee County holds tie-breakers over every team in Region 1 except Colquitt County, who beat the Trojans 5-0 on March 29.

Valdosta (16-8, 7-4) can’t win the region title because it lost the series against the Trojans this season. However, the Wildcats did keep their hopes of finishing second alive. A Colquitt loss or a Valdosta victory over last-place Lowndes Tuesday night in its regular-season finale will help the Wildcats earn home-field in the first round of the state playoffs that begin later this month.

Valdosta broke open a tie game with three runs in the top of the seventh, scoring on a pair of Lee County errors, followed by RBI singles from Wesley Veal and Cory McCann.

The biggest blow came when the Trojans made two errors on a sacrifice bunt from Blake McCann that scored Thomas Eager to break the tie.

“We had that one inning where we threw a few poor pitches and had a couple of errors,” Lee County coach Brandon Brock said. “In a 1-1 game, that will hurt you.”

Shuman dominated, allowing just a run on two hits. His only blemish came in the third inning.

Suiter laced a double to start the inning that landed just fair inside the foul line in left field, then Jonathan Logsdon reached on an infield single before scoring on an RBI groundout from Tyler Simon to tie the game at 1.

But after Simon’s groundout, Shuman set down 11 straight before an error with one out in the seventh inning. He fanned the side in fourth.

Shuman overshadowed a brilliant performance from Lee starter Garet Morrell who worked five innings and allowed a run on three hits. He was relieved by Josh Hatcher, who cruised until the seventh inning when Valdosta’s Thomas Eager kept the Trojans from turning a 6-4-3 double play.

After the game, a disappointed Lee County group walked off the field.

“That’s a good thing,” Brock said. “I’ve seen them like that before but not this year. To lose a game like that is tough. They’ll be back.”