On Tuesday, Long County traveled to Baxley and took on Region 2-AA’s No. 1 team: the Appling County Pirates. The Blue Tide went into the game confident, coming off a win over the Bradwell Tigers. Though the Tide played well and held the Pirates to the fewest runs they scored all season, the Red and Black team defeated the Ludowici squad 4-3 to remain undefeated in the region. Appling is 6-1. The loss dropped the Tide’s overall record to 3-5. The Blue and White are still looking for their first region win of the year.
"We lost to Appling County 4-3 in a highly contested match-up," Tide coach Brian Thomas said. "Bryan Wingate took the tough-luck loss surrendering only two earned runs. Our leading hitter was Jake Durham who was two for three. It was a great game played by two really motivated teams. I am happy with the intensity we played with and I expect our players to play with that same mindset from here on out."
The Ludowici team will get another shot at a region win today. They are on the road against Jeff Davis High School. The Yellow Jackets come into the game tied for the No. 2 spot in the region with a 2-0 record and are posting a 4-1 overall mark. Both teams are putting up impressive offensive numbers as the Tide is averaging 6.1 runs a night compared with the Yellow Jackets’ 6. On defense, however, the Jeff Davis team is only allowing 4.2 runs compared with the Tide’s 5.6.The early standings in 2-AA have the Pirates (6-1) undefeated at 3-0, the Yellow Jackets (4-1) and the Pierce County Bears (3-3) undefeated, but a game back at 2-0, followed by Tattnall County (4-2), Brantley County (3-3) and Benedictine all 1-1 (1-3) rounding out the top six spots.
Rounding out the region are McIntosh County (4-4) at 1-2, and Charlton County (4-4) and Long (3-5) still in the cellar at 0-3.
The Long/Jeff Davis game starts today at 6 p.m. in Hazlehurst.