For the second year in a row, the Long County Lady Blue Tide softball team is one round away from making it to the state softball tournament in Columbus for the first time since 2003.
They got to the second round with a dominant win over the Spalding Jaguars in the first round of the state playoffs on Wednesday, October 14. The Tide took 11-0 and 14-0 wins in the first round, both run rule victories.
The Tide moved to 20-4 and advanced to the second round for the second season in a row. They will host the Oconee County Warriors on Wednesday, October 21 with their first trip to Columbus in 23 years on the line.
MK Crews started a 2-3-6 pickoff that ended the top of the first inning in the first game, and the Tide put up four runs in the bottom half.
Hollan Clark’s single brought in Alyssa Skipper for the first run, and Crews plated Jersi Lester with another single. Gracie Wingate’s two-run double made it 4-0.
In the second, Wingate ran her strikeout total from the circle to three. Lester tripled, and Crews brought her home with a double to push the lead to 5-0.
The Tide exploded for five runs in the fifth with runs coming off a Rilyn Williams single, a Skipper sacrifice fly and Lester and Clark both reaching on errors. Crews finished her impressive day at the plate with her second RBI double of the game to give the Tide a 10-0 lead going into the fourth.
Demi Wasdin knocked in a run to push the lead to 11-0. Skipper, who came on in relief of Wingate, racked up two more strikeouts in the fifth, giving Tide pitchers eight for the game as they combined for a no-hitter.
In the second game, the Tide, as the visiting team, opened a four-run in the first inning again. Clark’s triple plated a run, Crews doubled and Lana Lewis circled the bases on a two-run inside-the-park homer.
The Tide were the visiting team for the second game but that did not change much for them. They scored four runs in the first inning, one coming off a Clark triple and Crews double and two coming off a Lana Lewis inside the park home run.
The Tide’s lead swelled to 7-0 in the second inning on Clark’s run-scoring single and Crews’ two-run double.
The Tide scored three more runs in the second off a Clark single and two off a double from Crews.
Skipper struck out the second in the second and fanned two more in the third, and the Tide put the game away in the fourth.
Reese Davis singled to bring in a run and Crews got another single, as she went 6-for-6. Yaya Sikes brought in two runs with a double, and Sikes scored on Kaydence Hardesty’s double. Riley Bierbrodt brought in another run with her single.
A Maddi Brannen single and Skipper’s sacrifice plated the last two runs, and Skipper closed out the game and the series in the bottom of the frame.