TIFTON — Tift County High dropped a doubleheader at Camden County Friday night, starting 2018’s region baseball schedule on the wrong foot.

Camden won the games, 9-4 and 3-1, according to statistics entered by head coach Kyle Kirk on GameChanger.

The Blue Devils had battled back from a 3-0 deficit in the opener to take a 4-3 lead, but the Wildcats scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Ethan Rucker drove in two of Tift’s runs on a fifth inning single. Keenan Webb and Thad Weldon each had single runs batted in, Weldon’s also occurring in the fifth. Webb, Weldon, Reece Watson and Mason Avant scored Tift’s runs.

Keshaun Mays and Rucker each had two hits.

Trey Barfield went five and one-thirds innings. He struck out six Camden hitters and allowed two earned runs.

In the nightcap, the Blue Devils led first, courtesy of an Avant double that scored Jack Lambert.

Camden pitching limited Tift to four hits, three of them doubles by Avant, Blake Webb and Lambert. Mays singled.

The Wildcats scored twice in the third and once in the fourth to take the win. Avant and Keenan Webb pitched for Tift, Avant giving up no hits in three innings of work. Camden, too, totaled only four hits, none going for extra bases.

Tift is scheduled to face Berrien at Nashville Monday at 6 p.m., then head to Coffee Tuesday. Lowndes comes in Friday for the first region home games. Friday is a doubleheader, with the first game starting at 4:30 p.m.