MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County baseball team held off a late Tift County rally to beat the Blue Devils 6-5 in the first game of a doubleheader on Friday on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium and finish second in Region 1-7A.

The Packers will play host to Harrison High in a best-of-3 first-round series that will begin Wednesday with a doubleheader at Packer Park.

A deciding game is scheduled for Thursday, if necessary.

The Packers lost Game 2 to the Blue Devils 6-3 on Friday to finish 6-6 in the region.

Colquitt will take a 14-14 overall record into the postseason.

Lowndes, which had already clinched first place, split its Friday doubleheader at Camden County and finishes 10-2 in the region and 22-7 overall.

The Vikings, ranked No. 1 in Class 7A by MaxPreps, will play host to North Paulding in a first-round series.

Tift County and Camden County each finish 4-8 in the region.

According to the Class 7A playoff brackets posted on Friday night on the GHSA website, Camden took the tiebreaker and finished third and will travel to meet North Cobb in the first round.

Tift County is No. 4 and will travel to meet Region 3 champion Walton.

The Packers needed to win just one of the two games against the Blue Devils on Friday to claim second place and the first-round home series.

And when Cam Cook hit the first pitch he saw over the fence in left to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning giving the Packers a 6-2 lead, Colquitt appeared in command.

But the game nearly unraveled for the Packers in the top of the seventh.

John Dorman and Tyler Holmes led off the inning with singles off Bryce Monk.

A hit batsman, a fielder’s choice and a wild pitch resulted in two Tift County runs to cut the Colquitt County lead to 6-4.

Mason Moore relieved Monk and walked the first two batters he faced and threw a wild pitch that scored the Blue Devils’ fifth run and put the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second with just one out.

But Moore recovered his composure and struck out Luke Ellerbee and John Davis to end the game.

Tift led 2-0 when the Packers scored five runs in the bottom of the third.

Abe Daniels walked, Cannon Whatley was hit by a pitch and Hayes Lightsey singled to scored Daniels.

Cook followed with a sacrifice fly to score Whatley and tie the game.

Cole Whatley then reached on an infield hit that chased Lightsey home to give the Packers the lead.

Moore than followed with the first of his two triples in the game to score Hayden Moore, who was running for Cole Whatley.

Chasyn Miley blooped a single to right to score Moore and put the Packers up 5-2.

In the fifth, after Cook’s homer, Cole Whatley singled, but was thrown out on the base paths.

That left no one aboard when Mason Moore stroked his second triple.

Dorman, who relieved Tift County starter Conner Vansummeren, retired the final five batters in order.

But Cook’s homer was the difference when Mason Moore got the final two strikeouts.

Colquitt used 25 players in a Game 2 that saw Tift County take a 6-0 lead on a four-run sixth inning.

The Packers got back-to-back doubles by Brady DeRosso and Neko Fann to open a three-run sixth inning.

Fann’s double scored one run, another came home on a throwing error and Adam Beverly’s sacrifice fly plated the other.

Colquitt had just three hits in Game 2 and just a single by Cook in the first inning until the two doubles led off the sixth.

Davis, the Tift County freshman, struck out 12 Packers over the first five innings, including 11 of the first 16 batters he faced.

He was the victim of the doubles by DeRosso and Fann and when he walked the next batter, he was lifted in favor of Dorman, who retired the final six Colquitt County batters.