The Region 3-AAAA South baseball race could very well come down to the last proverbial, and literal, pitch.

The Effingham County Rebels kept themselves in the hunt for one of the subregion’s four spots in the region tournament with an 8-4 come-from-behind win over Wayne County in Jesup on Friday night.

Effingham trailed 4-1 after the second inning, but chipped away until they pushed across four runs to break the tie in the top of the seventh.

“All night, we swung the bats well,” Rebels coach Brett Griffin said. “We hit the ball hard and hit a lot of ‘em right at people.”

The Rebels, 3-3 in the region, trailed by three after a bases-clearing double capped the Yellow Jackets’ four-run second.

“What I was most proud of was there were three or four innings where we scored a run, and we nibbled away at the lead,” Griffin said.

D.J. Collins started the rally with a double and Cory Caldwell, who was 2-for-3, added an RBI single.

Griffin has seen his team in tight-knit games all season long, so watching them comeback from an early deficit was nothing new. Six of their games have been decided by one run, and the Rebels have learned the game isn’t over until the last out.

“I think our kids understand that now, and not because of last night,” he said. “We’ve done a pretty good job of staying in the game all year.”

Dylan Scott led the Rebels, going 2-for-5 with two RBIs, and Jaime Tyler was 2-for-4. Zach Dotson was 3-for-4 with an RBI and went the distance on the mound, striking out four, walking one and giving up six hits.

“He gave up one hard-hit ball all night long,” Griffin said.

The Jackets still lead the subregion standings at 5-2, and both losses have come to the Rebels.