By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
SPRINGFIELD – Softball coaching is a lot like teaching and it’s not always about the nuances of swinging a bat and throwing a ball.
A week ago, Effingham County traveled to Appling County and Rebels coach Brad Thompson had a chance to talk to his girls about intangibles within a program.
“We pointed some things out around (Appling’s) field to understand what pedigree is,” said Thompson, relaying the Pirates’ two state softball championships during the last three years.
ECHS lost to the Pirates in Baxley but on Aug. 26, a week later, the Rebels showed their pedigree and rebounded nicely in Springfield.
Ava Wingate out-pitched University of Georgia commit Presley Harrison and ECHS held on for a 2-1 win to even the score with the defending Class 2A state champions.
Wingate struck out two, walked one (intentionally) and surrendered only four hits against a squad that averaged almost 10 runs a game entering the contest.
Appling, the top ranked team in Class 2A according to Score Atlanta, had a 17-game winning streak snapped – the final nine games of 2023 and first eight of 2024. Effingham was part of that streak when the Pirates rolled 7-0 in their first meeting this season.
This time, Abbi Jones broke a scoreless deadlock in the fourth inning with a two-out, run-scoring double and Gracie LaFleur made it 2-0 with a hard-hit RBI triple off the Appling rightfielder’s glove in the sixth.
Wingate made the advantage hold up by inducing a night of fly balls (12 putouts) to the outfield. She pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the third inning by registering her first strikeout. And after giving up a two-out home run in the seventh, she ended the Pirates’ hopes of stealing one with her second strikeout.
It was a key barometer win for the 6-2 Rebels, who had been beaten soundly in arguably their two biggest games – 9-0 to Class 6A Grovetown (with a 12-1 record) and 7-0 in Game One to Appling.
“Ava was lights out in the circle again so that helped,” Thompson said.
On Wednesday, the Rebels defeated Glynn Academy 4-2 in nine innings.
ECHS’ subregion play begins Tuesday (Sept. 10) with a three-game series with Lakeside Evans. The Rebels expect to be tested by seventh-ranked Greenbrier (10-1), a subregion foe, at the end of the regular season.
Losing practice time because of inclement weather hurt early team continuity, but now ninth-ranked ECHS has strung four straight wins together.
“The more we’re on the diamond playing the better. I think that makes a big difference,” Thompson said.
