MOULTRIE – Colquitt County’s Taylor Barber borrowed from former Alabama football coach Nick Saban for his inspirational message to his Lady Packers softball team heading into Tuesday’s Region 1-6A game against Camden County at Packer Park.

Saban had used his short “The Importance of Nothing” to motivate his Crimson Tide before a crucial game last season.

The gist of the message is that “nothing is acceptable but your best.”

“And we certainly got that today,” Barber said following the Lady Packers 12-0 run-rule victory over the Lady Wildcats in the first game of their three-game region series. “We played really, really well.

“It’s showing in the work they’ve been putting in. Our job now is not to get complacent and to keep getting better.”

Tuesday’s win raises the Lady Packers region record to 7-0 and its overall record to 12-6.

Colquitt’s girls have now won four in a row and seven of their last eight.

Barber said his team’s mindset against Camden County was “a total flip” of what it had been in its recent three-game region sweep of Valdosta.

“We celebrated the wins against Valdosta, but I wasn’t a big fan of how we went about our business,” Barber said.

That’s when he turned to wise words from one of college football’s most successful coaches to encourage his players.

Camden had won eight of their nine previous games – including three of four in the region – before making the trip to Moultrie.

The Lady Wildcats managed just three hits and advanced just one runner as far as third base in their four innings at Lady Packer Field.

While starting pitcher Peyton Arrington (now 6-2 with a 2.40 ERA) was blanking the Lady Wildcats and striking out five batters in the process, she and her teammates pounded out 10 hits and used a seven-run third inning to help make their visitor’s stay a short one.

The Lady Packers got the only two runs they would need in the bottom of the first when RaJayla McBride led off the game with a triple to left-center and scored on Arrington’s single.

Arrington stole second and third and scored on Libby Wetherington’s sacrifice bunt.

After not scoring in the second inning, Colquitt sent 10 batters to the plate in the third, with seven scoring.

McBride, Arrington and Wetherington had doubles in the inning.

Colquitt turned a single, five walks and a batter hit by a pitch to score three runs with just one out in the bottom of the fourth to get the run-rule victory.

McBride, Arrington and Wetherington each had two hits and Kamry Paulk, Lanie Burley, Montana Tatum and Rheygan Harrell each added a single.

Wetherington and Tatum each drove in a pair of runs.

Arrington will take a team-leading .472 batting average into Thursday’s doubleheader in Kingsland. She also leads the Lady Packers with 15 runs batted in.

McBride is hitting .400.

Barber said Paulk (4-1, 1.69 ERA), will head to the circle to start Thursday’s first game, which is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.

Lilah Thompson (2-3, 5.58 ERA) will likely start Game 2.

Also on Tuesday, Tift County defeated Valdosta 16-1 in the first game of their region series.