The Long County High School softball team picked up big Region 2-AA wins last week.  
On Wednesday the Lady Tide beat Vidalia, 1-0, in a defensive battle in Ludowici. The Lady Tide had not beaten Vidalia since 2007.  
 “It felt good to see the girls get a much needed win like that. It tells them that we can compete and play with the top teams in the region,” Long County head coach Brian Thomas said. Lady Tide pitcher Harley Dawson went the distance in the shutout, striking out seven batters and allowing four hits.   
“The difference was defense. We have been close in a few games this year, but today we didn’t make any critical errors and we pulled together in the clutch,” Thomas said.  
Madalyne Flynn went 1 for 3 with the lone RBI for Long County. Sam Garcia was 1 for 2, and Katie Estill and Dawson went 1 for 3.  
 “It was a great win for our softball program,” LCHS athletic director Karen Swindell said about the win over Vidalia. “Our coaches and players worked hard during the summer to prepare for this season, and it’s nice for them to earn an impressive win against a quality program.”
On Thursday, Long County won its third game of the week by winning, 10-6, at Metter.  Brittany Smiley had three hits for Long County and Cat Wingate had 2.  
Dawson also went the distance in this game to pick up the win.  
After the big win against Vidalia, Thomas said that he was glad that his team did not have a let-down.  
“I thought the win was really big for us because coming off a really emotional win against Vidalia. We had to fight against a let-down … it was also our fourth game in as many days, which was physically tough and not to mention we were playing a good, well-coached Metter team at their place,” he said.
With the wins Long County improved to 6-8 overall and 4-4 in the region.
The Lady Tide are off until Tuesday, when they take on Toombs County at 5:55 p.m. in Lyons. When the teams faced each other last month, the Lady Bulldogs came back late to pull out a 2-1 victory.