MOULTRIE — When the Colquitt County baseball team went through the first round of the Region 1-AAAAA schedule with just two wins in six games, there didn’t appear much hope for the Packers to make the playoffs.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the postseason.

The Packers won four of their final six region games, including a big 7-2 victory over Tift County on Friday at Ike Aultman Field at Packer Park that vaulted Colquitt County into the postseason.

Notorious Blue Devil-slayer Andrew Wallace struck out 15 and allowed just two unearned runs as the Packers finish 6-6 in the region and take the No. 3 seed to the state playoffs.

Tift County, which also finished 6-6, is eliminated by the tiebreakers.

Valdosta, which fell 4-2 at home to Coffee on Friday, also is 6-6, but is No. 4 via the tiebreakers.

Lowndes, which had already clinched the region championship, ended is region season with a 2-1 win over Houston County to finish 9-3.

Coffee is second at 6-5 and also will host a state playoff series.

Colquitt County’s third-place finish will mean a trip to Newnan for a first-round playoff series next Friday.

Valdosta must to go on the road to meet Region 4-AAAAA East Coweta.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Colquitt County’s first-year coach Eric McCranie said. “They started to believe in themselves.”

The Packers are back in the postseason after a one-year absence.

Both the Packers and Blue Devils knew going into Friday’s game that the winner would go the postseason and the loser would stay home.

Wallace, one of the eight Packers seniors honored before the game, would not let the Packers fall.

The left-hander struck out two Blue Devils in each of the first six innings and then fanned the side in the seventh.

Tift had just three hits, only one of which left the infield, a single to left by Nick Prostko in the second.

Luke Bragg and Israel Troupe had infield hits fifth.

But both runs scored via Colquitt County errors.

But two Tift County errors on one play in the first inning led to three Colquitt County runs — all the Packers would ultimately need.

The Packers then broke the game open in the bottom of the sixth, scoring four times on five hits.

The four-run rally was started by a single to right by Wallace, his second of the night off Tift County starter Matthew Brunty.

Matt Weaver then whistled a double to right-center scoring Wallace to put the Packers up 4-2.

After Carter Jones grounded out, Tyler Perryman singled, scoring Weaver, making it 5-2.

Jacob Stinson relieved Brunty, but he was greeted with a double to left by Andrew McDowell.

Packers catcher Spenser Richardson ripped the first pitch he saw from Stinson to right for a two-run single to make it 7-2 before the Blue Devils closed the door.

Wallace then went out and fanned Rhett Hammond, Israel Troupe and Garrett Blalock — for the fourth time in the game — to get the win.

“That’s probably the hardest I’ve ever thrown in a game,” said Wallace, who raised his record to 6-3. “I threw everything I needed to throw and put it where I needed to put it.”

McCranie was impressed.

“He threw a big game when we needed a big game,” McCranie said.

And he was especially pleased that even when the defense threatened to undermine him, Wallace refused to let it bother him.

Wallace has been a thorn in the side of the Blue Devils for two seasons.

Last year, he went 5-for-5 with four doubles and a grand slam to lead the Packers to a win at the Devil Diamond.

In the game between the two teams earlier this season, his three-run homer gave the Packers a lead they never surrendered in a 9-4 victory.

Tift scored in the second inning when Stinson reached on an error and went to second Prostko’s single to left.

Brooks Martin then grounded to Packers shortstop Blake Cato, whose throw to third to get Stinson was wide and ended up in the Packers dugout, scoring Stinson.

But Wallace struck out the next two hitters to avoid further damage.

In the fifth, after the two infield hits, Packers second baseman Carter Jones couldn’t handle Charlie Edwards’ two-out ground, allowing Bragg to score what proved to be the final Tift County run.

Wallace retired seven of the last eight batters he faced. The only batter to reach was pinch-hitter Dallas Neloms who got aboard when Javaris Jackson could not handle his fly ball.

The Packers had seven hits: two in the first inning and five in the sixth.

Wallace and Weaver each had two hits. Perryman, McDowell and Richardson had the others.