By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
SPRINGFIELD – Effingham County’s softball team took advantage of a break in the weather to begin its first-round Region 1-5A softball best-of-three series against Brunswick on Oct. 2.
But the North subregion’s top-seeded Rebels hardly gave the visiting Pirates a break.
ECHS (17-2) allowed only one hit in the doubleheader while advancing to the region semifinals after two 12-0 Mercy-rule victories over Brunswick.
The Rebels, ranked fourth in Class 5A in a coaches top 10 poll conducted by Coaches Box, may have been expected to beat Brunswick but playing on Oct. 2 was surprising since all the other region teams waited until Oct. 7 to play because of the effects of Hurricane Helene.
“(The schedule) was up in the air and Brunswick was agreeable to play and I felt, why sit back and wait for another hurricane to come by,” said ECHS coach Brad Thompson, whose squad has had six games canceled because of bad weather this season.
The Rebels upped their winning streak to 15 games after the sweep of Brunswick and assured themselves a spot in the Class 5A state tournament.
ECHS will host all four teams in the region semifinals Thursday and be in action at 11 a.m. against the Oct. 7-8 winner between Glynn Academy-Evans.
South Effingham will play its first-round region tournament series Oct 7-8 against Lakeside. If the Mustangs win, they would advance to play the winner of Greenbrier-Statesboro in the second semifinal game on Thursday at 1.
SEHS (16-5) is ranked 10th in the state, Greenbrier (18-4) is ranked 7th.
The winners of the semifinals will play for the region championship at 5. The two semifinal losers would play at 3 to determine state tournament seedings.
Against Brunswick, the Rebels produced 21 hits in the two games. Gracie LaFleur had two hits and drove in three runs and Jordan Tarver smacked a home run in the opener.
Shelby Zeigler had three runs batted in and Ansleigh Giordano added two RBIs in the nightcap.
Megan Coleman had two hits in both games.
Ava Wingate and Giordano both pitched shutouts in games stopped in the fourth inning because of the Mercy rule.
“I feel like the girls are playing well,” Thompson said. “The bats are hot and we have a good duo in the circle. If we get Ava and Ansleigh a couple of runs, they’re going to be tough to beat.”
The first and second rounds of the state tournament will be best-of-three series at home sites beginning on Oct. 16 and Oct. 23.
The eight surviving teams then advance to Columbus for a double-elimination tournament to determine a state champion.
