MOULTRIE — There was no way to prepare for the quality of pitching the Colquitt County baseball team saw on Friday at Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium.

Parkview left-handers Caleb Mitchell and Braden Hayes combined to allow just one unearned run and seven hits as the Panthers swept Colquitt County 6-1 and 4-0 in a Class 7A second-round doubleheader on.

Parkview, now 30-4, will advance to meet Woodstock in quarterfinal series scheduled to begin Monday in Lilburn.

Woodstock has registered shutouts in its first four playoff games, blanking Wheeler 6-0 and 3-0 and Region 8 champion Grayson 7-0, 6-0.

The Region 1 champion Packers, who swept McEachern in a first-round series last week, finish the season with a 17-16 record.

Friday’s sweep marked the fourth time Parkview has eliminated Colquitt County from the playoffs in the last 21 years, also turning the trick in 1996, in the semifinals; 2011, in the semifinals; and 2013 in the quarterfinals.

The Packers had been hitting the ball well in the five-game winning streak leading up to the series with Parkview, but never could mount a rally on Friday.

It should not have been surprising. The Panthers had shut out 14 opponents heading into the doubleheader and had allowed just one run four times and two runs five times.

“There’s a reason Parkview’s ERA was what it was (1.82 as a team),” 

coach Tony Kirkland said. “The were good at keeping the ball down in the zone.

“We must have set a record for ground balls (17 in the first game’ 10 in the second).

“Strikeouts weren’t the problem. We got the bat on the ball. We just couldn’t square up enough of them.”

Mitchell, a senior who went into the game with an 8-1 record and a

1.54 earned run average, allowed the Packers just three singles in Game 1 and in the second through the sixth innings retired 15 batters in a row.

Colquitt’s only run of the doubleheader came in the second inning of Game 1 when Logan Wheeler attempted to stretch his leadoff single into a double and was called out. But the umpire changed his call after discovering shortstop Isaiah Byers was unable to hold on to the throw.

Wheeler moved to third on Buck Blalock’s ground out to second base and scored on Gavin Patel’s grounder to first.

After Wheeler’s hit, the Packers did not have another base runner until Jay Saunders reached on error to open the seventh. Austin Singletary followed with a single and both runners moved up on a wild pitch.

But Mitchell struck out Wheeler and got Blalock and Patel on infield grounders to end the game.

Mitchell struck out four and did not walk a batter.

Singletary had the other Packers’ other hit, a two-out infield single in the first.

But Mitchell picked him off first to end the inning.

Parkview scored two runs in the first off starter Wheeler Hunnicutt, who, with one out, walked three straight batters.

Jonathan French then singled, driving home the first two runs.

The Panthers added another run in the third when designated hitter Cody Collett singled home Logan Cerny, who had reached on a base hit.

Hunnicutt lasted until the sixth when, with one out, Robert Bennett reached on an error and Allen Del Castillo singled to left.

Jacob Coots relieved Hunnicutt and promptly gave up a run-scoring base hit to Ben Markiewicz. Del Castillo scored on a squeeze bunt by Michael Bryant to put the Panthers up 5-1.

Bennett singled in French, who had doubled, for the game’s final run in the top of the seventh.

Hayes, a junior who was 9-0 with a 1.26 ERA before coming to Moultrie, was just as effective as Mitchell in Game 2.

He gave up four singles, a walk and hit a batter while striking out four in the 4-0 second-game series clincher.

Wheeler and Patel produced two of those hits in the seventh inning, but Hayes retired Hayden Bledsoe and Tanner Wilson to end the Packers season.

Ethan Phillips, coming off his no-hitter that clinched the first-round series over McEachern, gave up just five singles in Friday’s Game 2, including three to Markiewicz.

The Panthers went up 1-0 in the second inning when Del Castillo singled in French, who had walked and stolen second.

Parkview tacked on two more in the third without the benefit of a hit.

Cerny walked to open the inning and later scored on a fielder’s choice rapped into by French. Will Boles reached on one of two Phillips errors in the inning and scored on Bennett’s sacrifice fly.

Parkview’s final run came in the sixth when Bennett reached on an infield hit and scored on Mankiewicz’s third and final hit.

Phillips, who is just a junior, gave up just five hits and walked three. Two of the batters he walked eventually scored.

Colquitt allowed just 10 runs over the two games, but could not overcome the outings by the two Parkview southpaws.

“You just don’t get to see those kinds of guys,” Kirkland said. “You see the stats and you hear from other coaches. But obviously they knew what to do on the mound.”

It was a bittersweet finish to the season, which hit a bump when three top pitchers were lost early in the season.

“That’s part of life,” Kirkland said. “You have to deal with setbacks. 

But it was a testament to how the kid have grown up and matured and made the best of the situation. It really makes you proud of this group. I’m really, really close to these guys.”

As Kirkland predicted, the Packers rallied to win the region championship on the last day of the regular season.

“I told them from day one we’d win the region,” he said.