By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
GUYTON – South Effingham’s baseball season ended this year on April 8 – 17 days earlier than last year.
Way too early for Coach Jesse Osborne.
“This is the weirdest finish to a year I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’ve never been done this early. It’s not just not making the (state) playoffs. It’s because of how the region lined up and how early the (region) tournament was. It’s a very odd feeling.”
The Mustangs’ region stretches from Brunswick to Augusta and the three Augusta schools have a one-week break when the Masters comes to their town.
To accommodate a region tournament, region teams played a week earlier than normal. Losing in the first round meant not playing two games (the region semifinals and finals) and at least two more games in the state playoffs.
SEHS usually isn’t among the schools playing shortened baseball schedules. But the Mustangs, who had made the state tournament every year since 2012 (not counting the abbreviated COVID 2020 season), lost the three games that counted the most – two blowouts to Greenbrier 11-1 and 11-0 in the region tournament and a stunning regular-season setback to Statesboro that could have avoided South from playing Greenbrier in the first place.
“Give Greenbrier credit. They hit everything,” Osborne said. “They were hitting as a group against us – situational hitting, two-strike hitting. They did a phenomenal job. We couldn’t get them out. You have to tip your hat to them. It was their day and not ours.”
South began the season with four wins and won a key early-season series from Glynn Academy, two games to one, to grab a lead in the subregion standings.
But the Statesboro loss, after two Mercy Rule wins against the Blue Devils, proved young teams can be wildly inconsistent. South replaced six starters and two of its three starting pitchers this season.
The Mustangs swept a season-ending, non-region doubleheader against Augusta Christian 10-0 and 8-6 and finished with a 16-10 record.
They’ll lose six seniors, including shortstop Dalton Redmond, a four-year anchor in the middle of the infield. Redmond is committed to play baseball at East Georgia State College.
There is a solid nucleus coming back led by pitcher/outfielder Lance Cantaline and catcher JT Barkley. Evan Hollis, Jacob Duncan, James Brooks, Carter Futch and Trevor Sequin.
The three-man starting pitching rotation of Cantaline, Nico Ellwood and Bryce Hodges will be back as well.
“It’ll be tough to replace Dalton. He made his mark here and he’s been very solid for us,” Osborne said. “The young guys will have some opportunities. It will be a competition.”
