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Effingham County Softball Faces Loganville in State Elimination Game
Effingham County Softball
Effingham County players cheer from the dugout during their first-round loss to Creekview Thursday at the GHSA 5A softball tournament in Columbus. The Rebels, now in the losers bracket, must win three games Friday to stay alive. (Darrell Roaden / Effingham Herald)

COLUMBUS, Ga. – Effingham County’s softball team won’t get a chance to sleep in Friday morning.
Coach Brad Thompson is hoping for a very long day at the South Commons Softball Complex. The Rebels (27-8) slipped into the losers bracket of the GHSA Class 5A Fast-Pitch Softball Championships after falling to defending champion Creekview 7-0 on Thursday, the opening day of the Elite Eight double-elimination tournament.

Tough Matchup Friday
ECHS will face Loganville, the top-ranked Class 5A team in Score Atlanta’s pre-playoff top 10, today at 9 a.m. The Red Devils (27-4) lost to Veterans on the first day. “They’re in the same position we are — trying to stay alive — so rankings are irrelevant at this point,” Thompson said.

Loganville and Effingham County have played a common opponent this season. The Rebels beat Greenbrier twice in a regular-season, three-game series that decided the Region 1 North subregion title. Greenbrier finished as a No. 4 seed from Region 1 and matched up with Loganville in the state tournament’s opening round of 32, where the Red Devils swept the series 14-3 and 17-7.

ECHS, the Region 1 champion, won best-of-three series against Apalachee and Seckinger to advance to Columbus.

Bats Silent, Road Ahead Daunting
After scoring 18 runs in the three-game series against Seckinger, the Rebel bats went silent against Creekview. Grizzlies right-hander Jessie Roland, who committed to Mercer University four days ago, went the distance.

ECHS had chances to break up the shutout in the late innings but failed to get the timely hit. The Rebels had runners on first and second with no outs in the sixth and on second and third with two outs in the seventh.

To advance to Saturday, the Rebels must win three games Friday — starting with Loganville at 9 a.m., then the loser of Thursday night’s game between South Effingham and Jackson County at 1 p.m., and another game at 7 p.m. To win the title, ECHS would need to win one more losers bracket game at 11 a.m. Saturday and then sweep two games from a team coming out of the winners bracket at 1:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.