TIFTON — Earlier this week, the Tift County Diamond Devils getting the opportunity to host a home series at the Class 6A might have seemed a dream at best. Sweeping Camden County was in their hands, but a complicated and precise bit of math was needed to aid them. Friday night, it happened.

The Blue Devils completed a doubleheader sweep of Camden in Kingsland. And, in Moultrie, the Colquitt County Packers split with Richmond Hill.

Colquitt and Tift both finish 10-5 in Region 1-6A, but since Tift won two games in the series between the two and Packers only won one, the Blue Devils are second on the tiebreaker. Richmond Hill will be the fourth seed, 9-6 in region play. Lowndes clinched the No. 1 seed Tuesday with an eight-inning win over Valdosta.

At the beginning of the week, to get second place, Tift needed to not only win all three over Camden, but for Colquitt to win twice over Richmond Hill. Tuesday saw that off to a good start with the Packers winning on the road and Tift won with ease, 13-5, behind home runs by Tyler VanSumeren and Jake Spurlin.

Richmond Hill countered with a 4-1 win to open Friday’s doubleheader at Ike Aultman Stadium. The finale went to Colquitt, 3-0, a two-hitter from Cook Tompkins.

Over in sand gnat territory, the Blue Devils earned an 11-2 win in the opener, Ryan Whitley going the distance on the hill. That just left game two, and TCHS left no doubt.

VanSumeren toed the rubber in the nightcap. Not only did the team post 11 runs in five innings, VanSumeren nearly pitched a perfect game. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Camden got a single and a walk. There, VanSumeren buckled down and struck out his last man for the team’s 20th win of the season.

Landon Parrish homered in the first game. Tift scored five in the first and held a 5-1 score through three frames. They tacked on five more over the fourth and fifth and a single run in the seventh.

Whitley struck out six while surrendering five hits. Parrish, VanSumeren and John Davis all drove in three runs. Both VanSumeren and Davis doubled twice in the game.

Trey Dorminey, Drew Hembree, VanSumeren and Davis all had two RBIs in the second contest. Davis and Parrish doubled and Davis finished with three hits.

Spurlin extended his streak to 13 hits in 13 at-bats in the opener, but was stopped there.

Tift County finishes up the regular season next week with non-region home games against Schley County and  Lee County.