By Donald Heath

Special for the Effingham Herald

SPRINGFIELD – Effingham County made short work of East Paulding on a long night of baseball in the opening round of the Class 5A state championships.

The Rebels swept a doubleheader from the Raiders, 3-1 and 13-5 to win the best-of-three series, two games to none. The games began at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday and – after a 1 ½ hour lightning delay and a 3 hour, 35-minute second game (the teams combined for 11 walks, three hit batsmen and 10 runs in the final two innings of the nightcap) – didn’t end until 12:30 a.m. on Thursday.

ECHS (27-5) advanced to the state Sweet Sixteen on April 29 and will host the winner of Winder-Barrow and Coffee. Winder leads that series one game to none.

The Rebels, the Region 1 champions, trailed 1-0 in the first game before rallying for three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Aiden Garcia’s fielder’s choice tied the game and Ryan Wells followed three batters later with a two-out double down the right-field line for the game-winning runs.

Righthander Kyle Thomas went the distance, striking out five, walking two and scattering six hits.

In the second game, every ECHS batter reached base and scored at least one run. Wells, who was on base four times (an error, a walk, hit by pitch and a single), drove in four runs.

Adam Acel had three hits, including two doubles and drove in two runs.

Kaleb Pendley reached base four times and drove in two runs.

Newton Kieffer had two hits and an RBI and Karson Thompson added two hits.

ECHS struck for two runs in the first inning and sent 11 batters to the plate in the second inning when it plated five more runs.

Rebels starter Luke Edwards, who pitched a seven-inning no-hitter against Statesboro in the region tournament, threw five no-hit innings this time before leaving with a 7-1 lead.

Edwards finished with five strikeouts, four runs and surrendered one earned run.

The wins were ECHS' first baseball wins at state since winning a series against North Atlanta in 2022.