Taking on Region 2-AA rival Toombs County on Friday in Ludowici, the Long County High School softball team held on to the lead through five innings, but gave up two runs late to drop their first game of the year, 2-1.
With sophomore Harley Dawson on the mound, the Tide and the Bulldogs were scoreless through the first two innings of play. But in the bottom of the third inning, with a runner in scoring position, Katie Estill nailed a double sending the runner home to put the Lady Tide up, 1-0.  
The scored didn’t change in the third and fourth innings, but in the top of the fifth inning, the Lady Bulldogs scored twice to go ahead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Ashley Desbiens and Sam Garcia both had singles, but the Lady Tide were unable to send either in for a score.  
After a scoreless sixth inning for both teams, Garcia made a clutch catch in the seventh inning that was headed down the line to keep the Bulldogs from scoring another run.  
Long County had one more chance in the bottom of the seventh inning to put up some runs, but the Bulldogs closed out the game.
Long County had six hits and two errors on the night, while Toombs County had seven hits and no errors.  
“We popped the ball up way too much,” Lady Tide coach Brian Thomas said. “We couldn’t keep it on the ground, but we did play some good infield defense, we played smart, and we had good pitching and good catching.”
On Monday, the Tide travel to Flemington to take on Liberty County High School in a non-region game. When the two teams met last season, the Lady Tide won, 11-3. The game begins at 6 p.m.

Lady Tide roster
Harley Dawson, Cat Wingate, Emily Hester, Ashley Desbiens, Madalyne Flynn, Brittany Smiley, Kaylyn McEwin, Katie Estill, Alyssa Anderson, Taylor Poole, Sam Garcia, Hannah Golden, Faith Morris, Makaylee Fowler