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Effingham County, South Effingham softball rivalry returns to regular season
Softball rivalry
South Effingham's Alyssa Martin created one of the many dramatic moments of South Effingham-Effingham County softball rivalry when she hit a tie-breaking eighth-inning home run to give the Mustangs' an 8-5 win for the 2024 region championship. (Mark Lastinger / Effingham Herald)

GUYTON, Ga. – The softball rivalry between Effingham County and South Effingham will return to the regular season in 2025.

Team schedules were released recently, and the Rebels and Mustangs are slated to meet in non-region contests Aug. 6 in Springfield and Sept. 3 in Guyton. Additional matchups in region or state tournament play remain possible.

According to MaxPreps, ECHS and SEHS have played each other every year since 2012. But when the Georgia High School Association realigned regions for the 2024-25 school year, the Mustangs and Rebels were placed in different subregions, eliminating their mandatory annual games.

That created a scheduling challenge for coaches of perennial state contenders like SEHS and ECHS. Non-region games allow teams to experiment with lineups and face statewide competition without worrying about region standings.

Further complicating matters, the GHSA permits schools to play only 30 regular-season games (excluding state playoffs). Region 1 coaches must also account for five games in the region tournament.

As a result, the Rebels and Mustangs didn’t play during the 2024 regular season. They met only in the Region 1-6A championship game, where Alyssa Martin’s three-run home run in extra innings lifted South Effingham to an 8-5 victory.

“That was my mistake to not play them last year,” SEHS coach Adam Newland said. “I think people understood the weird setup of our region, but (ECHS coach Brad Thompson) and I are constantly looking for good competition, even if it’s in non-region setups. (The local series) would still be a good situation for us. We’ll get a lot out of it.”