SPRINGFIELD, Ga. – Effingham County baseball coach Eric McCombie was cutting grass at Rebel Field on Tuesday afternoon in preparation for his team’s rivalry game against South Effingham when his phone rang.
It was his pregnant wife, Eden Evans, calling from the doctor’s office. She had gone into labor.
“I think we’re going to do this today,” she told her husband.
“I wasn’t sure what she had just said,” McCombie admitted.
He put assistant coach Robbie Ergle in charge and rushed to Savannah to join his wife at St. Joseph’s Candler Hospital.
About five hours later — around the second inning — a 7-pound, 4-ounce baby girl, Eloise Anne McCombie, was born.
It was the couple’s third child, all girls.
“Everything went well. Everyone is healthy,” McCombie said from the hospital, finally looking for something to eat after the long day.
Rebels deliver on the field
On the baseball field, the Rebels added more good fortune as a full moon hovered overhead — a 4-1 victory over the Mustangs.
ECHS right-hander Kyle Thomas pitched a four-hitter, allowing one unearned run while striking out eight and walking one.
Thomas also helped his own cause with a two-out, two-run single in the sixth inning that provided key insurance runs.
“It was good to give Coach McCombie a win,” Ergle said. “I know he was looking at GameChanger. When I went into the office to call him and tell him about the game, he had already sent out a group text, ‘Great job, guys.’”
Apparently, Ergle knows his head coach well.
“Outside of the actual delivery, I was locked in on it,” McCombie said.
South Effingham (6-6) opened the scoring in the first inning, manufacturing a walk and an error into a run on Bryce Hodges’ single.
The Rebels (10-2) answered with a hit batsman and a two-out throwing error to plate the tying run.
Effingham County, ranked seventh in Class 5A by Score Atlanta, scored the only earned run of the game in the third inning on Hunter Tuten’s two-out RBI single.
Pitchers set the tone
South right-hander Lance Cantaline struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings to keep the Mustangs close.
“Lance pitched great. We can’t ask anyone to pitch better than that,” South coach Jesse Osborne said. “Effingham County is a good team. We’re a good team, but we just didn’t hit tonight.”
Thomas was the difference. He kept the Mustangs off-balance with a sharp changeup to complement his fastball and retired 10 straight batters from the fourth inning until one out in the seventh.
It was his second win during ECHS’s three-game winning streak over its cross-county rival.
Thomas downplayed the significance.
“To be honest, they’re just another game on our schedule. We couldn’t care less,” he said. “We’re trying to dogpile in Atlanta in the state championship. They’re just another obstacle we have to get through.”
Ergle offered a more diplomatic assessment.
“We played a good game. Defensively, we were outstanding,” Ergle said. “Tip your hat to Cantaline. They’re a tough ball club. In a rivalry like this, you can throw out records and all kinds of stuff — it doesn’t matter.”
McCombie said he plans to be back in the dugout Friday when the Rebels and Mustangs conclude their two-game series in Guyton.
