With the playoffs drawing near, the Long County High School softball team split two region games earlier this week.
The Lady Tide’s overall record as of Wednesday was 10-12 and their Region 2-AA mark was 7-8 after falling, 5-2, to Bacon County (15-5 overall and 13-3 in the region) on Tuesday at home and winning, 13-12, Wednesday in Pembroke over Bryan County (13-8, 9-4).
In Tuesday’s game, Long County’s Harley Dawson pitched all seven innings. She struck out one batter, walked two and gave up six hits and five earned runs.
At the plate for the Lady Tide, Taylor Poole and Ashley Desbiens each batted 1 for 2. Katie Estill, Alyssa Anderson and Caitlyn Wingate each were 1 for 3, and Dawson was 1 for 4.  Dawson also had four RBIs and Wingate had one.  
“We scored early and then gave up five runs in the fourth inning, but we still battled back, but just couldn’t get a hit when we needed it,” Lady Tide head coach Brian Thomas said.
He said that despite the loss, he felt that they played well and would need to continue that to make the playoffs.
“I thought that we played a pretty good game. Bacon County is a well-coached team that is probably a contender for the region and the state title … we are going to need more efforts like this one for the rest of the season,” he said.
On Wednesday, things looked bleak for the Lady Tide as they fell behind, 12-3, going into the fifth inning. But once they came up to bat, they scored five runs. Long County scored five more runs in the sixth inning to take the lead for good.
Wingate was the winning pitcher, throwing a scoreless frame in the fifth. Emily Hester pitched the third and fourth innings. Dawson started the game, tossing for the first two innings. Dawson returned in the sixth inning retiring the side in order and earned the save by throwing a scoreless seventh inning.
Long County was scheduled to have another big region showdown Thursday in Pearson against Atkinson County, which had a 1-14 overall record and a 1-13 region mark. Results from that game were not available for this story.  
At 6 p.m. Monday, Long County will face Bradwell in Hinesville in a non-region game. According to GaSports.com, as of Wednesday the Lady Tigers were 3-12 overall. When the two teams played each other last year both teams lit it up, with the Lady Tide winning in a shootout, 12-10.