MOULTRIE — Cole Whatley had made only three previous appearances on the mound for Colquitt County this season before taking the ball for Wednesday’s deciding game of the best-of-3 second round state playoff series against Alpharetta at Packer Park.

His only other start was back on Feb. 19 when he pitched three innings in a no-decision against Valdosta.

His longest outings were both four innings, both in relief, against Berrien on March 7 and Valdosta on March 28.

He had no won-loss record.

And he had been behind the plate for 12 pressure innings the evening before when the Packers split their first two games in the series against the Raiders.

But on Wedneday, the senior turned in what was the most efficient, and most important, pitching performance of the season when he went the distance holding Alpharetta to just one unearned run in a 10-1 victory that sends the Packers to the state’s final eight for the first time since 2012.

Whatley scattered six hits, struck out four and walked just two.

The Packers, now 18-15, will travel to meet 28-6 Parkview in a quarterfinal series that will begin with a doubleheader in Lilburn on Monday.

The Panthers have reached the Elite Eight by sweeping McEachern and Lambert in the first two rounds, winning three of the four games by shutouts.

Parkview eliminated Lambert on Tuesday by identical 10-0 scores.

Whatley might have pitched himself into the Packers plans for slowing down the Parkview offense next week after helping his team overcome what could have been a debilitating 12-4 five-inning loss to Alpharetta in Tuesday’s second game.

After Tuesday’s games, coach Brandon Brock discussed options for who would start the deciding game after starting Cameron Summerlin in Game 1 and Mason Moore in Game 2.

“I finally asked him, ‘Do you want the ball?” Brock said. “He said, ‘Yes, sir.’

“That made it pretty simple. We had some others guys that we were OK with. But he’s a senior, he’s a competitor. And sometimes, you just want that kind of guy.”

Whatley put his stamp on the game quickly, retiring the Raiders in order in the top of the first on seven pitches.

The Packers had issued 11 walks in each of their last two doubleheaders and bases on balls had been a concern for Brock.

Whatley then walked the leadoff batter in the top of the second.

But he retired the next three Raiders in order, striking out two of them.

Alpharetta got back-to-back base hits to open the third, but  managed just one run and that came on a throwing error.

The Raiders had base runners in every inning, but could not push another run across and stranded nine.

In fact, Alpharetta also got the first two batters aboard in both the fourth and sixth innings, but did not score.

Whatley’s only other walk came leading off the sixth.

Alpharetta followed with a base hit, but Whatey got a pair of ground outs and his fourth and final strikeout to chalk up another scoreless inning.

The Packers backed him up offensively by scoring five runs in the bottom of the second and adding three more in the fourth to put the game out of the Raiders’ reach.

And Whatley had a hand in the five-run second-inning uprising, leading it off with a single.

The Packers scored in the inning on an Alpharetta error, a base’s loaded walk by Hayden Moore, a two-run single by Abraham Daniels and on a double-play grounder by Cannon Whatley.

The Packers needed just one hit in their three-run fourth inning, taking advantage of an error, a walk and a hit batsman.

Davis Dalton’s second infield hit of the game drove in one of the runs.

Cannon Whatley drove in the Packers ninth run with a fifth- inning single and Mason Moore singled and scored the 10th run in the sixth on Alpharetta’s fourth error of the game.

The Packers got 10 hits off three Alpharetta pitchers, including two each by Dalton and Mason Moore.

Daniels, Hayden Moore, Landon Griffin, Cannon Whatley, Cole Whatley and Hayes Lightsey had the others.

Regardless of what happens at Parkview, Colquitt County is guaranteed a winning record, the program’s first since 2018, when the current seniors were eighth-graders.

Brock said he was pleased to see the seniors get some well-deserved late-season success.

“And I’m also proud of this community,” he said. “I love South Georgia and all these little towns and representing them against the rest of the state.

“This really makes me proud. That’s why I moved here and there is no other place I’d rather be.”