Catcher Justin Mee wasn’t about to let John Eddie Hodges take a loss.

            With two down in the bottom of the seventh inning, Mee singled up the middle to drive in Kendrick Thompson for the game-winning run as the Statesboro Blue Devils held off Ware County 5-4 Friday at Mill Creek Park.

            Hodges saw four runs – all of them unearned – cross the plate in his six innings of work as the Devils (7-7, 3-2 Region 2-AAAA) came back from a 4-3 deficit to claim the win over the Gators(11-4, 3-3).

            “John’s throwing great,” said Mee about the senior lefty. “He’s throwing the ball across the plate and painting the corners. He’s one of the best pitchers I’ve seen this year that throws strikes continuously. I was just thinking with the way he pitched, everybody’s got to try to compete and do their job.”

            The Devils were down to their last strike when Calk Minick (2-for-4, 2 R) fought off three-straight foul balls to stay alive then bounced a hard grounder to WCHS third baseman Spencer Clark. Clark threw it into the Ware dugout to allow Minick to take second.

            “We were down to the last pitch, and Calk knew that,” said SHS coach Chris Bishop. “He went 0-2 and fouled off three-consecutive fastballs. He knew the breaking ball was coming and he rolled over it to cause a topper to the third baseman.”

            Kendrick Thompson laced a double to the left-center gap to drive in Minick and tie the game at 4-4, and the Gators walked William Golden (1-for-2, BB, RBI, R) to get to Mee, who put the game in the books.

A pair of unearned runs gave Ware its first lead in the top of the sixth inning.

            Trailing 3-1 with the bases loaded and two down for the Gators, a mishandled grounder off the bat of Clark scored Cody Sanders and got them within 3-2.

            After the error continued the inning, Ware’s Mac Arnold ripped an 0-1 pitch to the left-field corner and drove in two to put the Gators up 4-3, and Clark was nailed at the plate trying to add another run to end the frame.

            “I had it halfway in my mind to get (Hodges) out in the fifth,” Bishop said. “We decided to walk the guy. He said, ‘Coach, I can get a ground ball.’ He did, and it just didn’t work out. We obviously couldn’t do it without him.”

            Golden got the scoring started in the bottom of the first when he started a two-out rally by beating out an infield single. He stole second to get into scoring position, and scored when Mee reached on a throwing error by Gators shortstop Lee Evans.

            The error allowed Mee to take second and Golden to cross the plate to give SHS a 1-0 lead.

            The Blue Devils got two more in the third on four hits and a pair of sacrifices.

            Quante Huff got things started when he beat out an infield single and Minick dropped a single into shallow right to put runners on first and second. Kendrick Thompson put them into scoring position with a sac bunt, and a sacrifice fly by Golden scored Huff and made it 2-0.

            Mee lined an RBI single to right to drive in Minick and put SHS ahead 3-0.

            Ware County answered with a run of their own in the top of the fifth, when the Blue Devils loaded the bases on two fielding errors and an Arnold single.

            Blake Chaney scored on a sac fly by Ware County pinch hitter T.J. Musgrove to cut into the Statesboro lead and make it 3-1.

            The Devils return to the diamond Tuesday on the road at Wayne County. First pitch is 6 p.m.

            Matt Yogus can be reached at (912) 489-9408.