MOULTRIE – When the Colquitt County baseball team takes on Harrison today in a 4 p.m. doubleheader  at Packer Park to open their first round, best-of-3 state tournament series, the Packers will be up against a team that might have more than the normal incentive to go back to Kennesaw with two more wins under its belt.

Mark Elkins, who has been the Hoyas head coach since 1999 and led them to a state championship in 2010, has announced he will retire at the end of the season.

And if Harrison’s players are as impressed with Elkins as much as Colquitt County coach Brandon Brock is, they should be worthy adversaries.

“He is one of those guys who has done it the right way,” Brock said of Elkins, who has won 470 games in his career, was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club’s Hall of Fame in 2017. “He’s got a great program and he’s had a lot of success.

“It will be an honor to be on the same field with him.”

All that being said, Colquitt County would like nothing better than to send Elkins into retirement a little earlier than he would like.

The Hoyas are 17-12  overall and finished 9-6 and in a three-way tie for second behind Region 3 champion Walton.

The region tie-breaker left the Hoyas in third place, sending them to play on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium in the first round.

The Packers needed to hang on to defeat Tift County in the first game of their regular season-ending doubleheader last Friday to claim second place in Region 1 and ensure their nine seniors get at least two more opportunities to play in front of the home fans.

“I am really happy for our seniors,” Brock said of the group that includes Davis Dalton, Abraham Daniels, Hayden Moore, Hayes Lightsey, Chasyn Miley, Bryce Monk, Cameron Summerlin, Cannon Whatley and Cole Whatley.

That group had not had a lot of success over the three previous seasons in which the Packers compiled a combined 24-51.

Colquitt has been up-and-down this year, the first under Brock, the former Lee County head coach.

The Packers are 14-14 overall and 6-6 in Region 1-7A games.

The 14 wins are the most by a Colquitt County team since the 2018 Packers went 23-11.

This year’s Packers have faced their share of adversity.

Six of their 14 losses have come on the road in their opponents’ final bat.

But they responded under the gun in last Friday’s second-seed clincher at home against Tift County.

Trailing 6-2 heading into the top of the seventh, the Blue Devils scored three runs and had the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second with just one out.

But sophomore Mason Moore, after walking the first two batters he had faced and wild-pitching in a run, settled down to strike out the final two Tift County batters, including leadoff hitter John Davis, who was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks.

The win and No. 2 seed puts the Packers in a quadrant that includes one of the state champion favorites: Parkview.

The Packers would have to eliminate Harrison and the winner of the series between Alpharetta and Region 7 champion Dunwoody to get a chance to travel to meet Parkview.

Colquitt is expected to send out Summerlin to the mound in Wednesday’s 4 p.m. series-opener against Harrison.

He was the Game 1 starter in the region doubleheaders this season and has started 12 of the Packers’ 28 games.

Mason Moore, with seven starts, will get the ball for Game 2.

If a Game 3 is necessary, it is unclear who will start.

It could depend in who is used in relief in the first two games, but it likely will be either senior Bryce Monk, who is 5-1 with a 3.19 ERA, or freshman Cook Tompkins, who is 2-1 with a 1.40 ERA.

In last Friday’s game against Tift County, the Packers started Cole Whatley at catcher, Cannon Whatley at first base, Dalton at second base, sophomore Cam Cook at shortstop, Daniels at third base, junior Landon Griffin in left field, Lightsey in center field and Mason Moore in right.

Miley was the designated hitter for Summerlin.

Cook is having an outstanding season at the plate leading the regulars with a .402 batting average.

He also leads the Packers in doubles, with seven; in home runs, with two; and in runs batted in with 31.

Cannon Whatley is hitting .371 in the leadoff spot and leads the Packers in runs scored with 28. He and Cook lead the team in base hits with 33.

Mason Moore has 30 hits, including six doubles, two triples, a homer and 23 RBIs. He is hitting .370.

Lightsey is hitting .305 and has driven in 14 runs.

Lowndes, which won its fourth-straight region championship, will play host to North Paulding in the first round.

Third-place Camden County will go to North Cobb and No. 4 Tift County will travel to meet Region 3 champion Walton.