GUYTON — South Effingham’s epic softball season come to a close Friday in Columbus in the Class AAAAA tournaemnt. The Lady Mustangs finished with a 27-7 mark.

“We had an unbelievable season,” South Effingham coach Chuck Smith said. “We were right there. Our side of the bracket was definitely the toughest side.”

South Effingham was bunched with Loganville, Bainbridge and Walnut Grove. The other half of the bracket featured Locust Grove, Buford, Thomas County Central and Villa Rica.

The Lady Mustangs got off to a hot start Thursday, beating eventual runner-up Loganville 3-2. Multiple weather delays, however, forced them play Bainbridge on Friday afternoon instead of Thursday evening, quelling momentum.

“It kind of deflated us with the rain delay and then the game got cancelled,” Smith said. “Every time I turned around, it was an hour later, an hour later. I really felt like things would have been different if we were able to play Thursday night.

“It was sloppy. No excuses, they had to go through the same thing, too, but we had a lot of momentum going into that game and it kind of took some things out.”

The Lady Mustangs fell to Bainbridge 4-1 and suffered a 10-8 loss to Buford in a win-or-go-home contest. The Lady Wolves tallied three runs in the first four innings but the Lady Mustangs responded with seven. 

Buford, however, posted five runs in the fifth frame and two more in seventh and that was enough to put away the Lady Mustangs.

See the Oct. 31 edition of the Effingham Herald for more details.