The Region 3-AAA softball champions find themselves in a must-win situation Saturday to keep their hopes of going to Columbus alive.

Long County, the top seed in the super regional, fell 4-0 to Jackson in a winner's bracket game, pitting the Lady Blue Tide into an 11 a.m. win-or-go-home game Saturday with Thomasville.

Jackson put together three hits to take a 2-0 lead in the second inning and stretched the lead to 3-0 in the third.

Long County had two on and one out in the fourth, but Jackson’s defense held up, and the Lady Blue Tide turned the tables on the Lady Red Devils, getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth.

Jackson, ranked No. 9 in the state by Score Atlanta, pushed across its final run in the sixth.

The Lady Blue Tide had little problem with Hephzibah in the opener, posting a 23-0 win in three innings.

After Jaci Smiley struck out the side in the top of the first inning, the Lady Tide got a combination of six walks and hit batters to take a 3-0 lead without having to put the ball in play.

Ciara O’Brien cracked a base-clearing triple as the Tide went up 6-0, and Mackenie McFarland brought in two more runs with a single. A passed ball and Kyleigh Sizemore’s double pushed the lead to 10-0. Four more walks and another hit batter widened the lead to 13-0 before Delanie Williams came to bat for the third time in the inning.

Her two-run single and Sizemore’s bases-loaded walk gave the Lady Blue Tide a 16-0 cushion.

The Lady Blue Tide pushed across seven runs in the second.

O’Brien brought one home on a single, Addie Moss scored on a wild pitch and Kassie Davis brought home the final run on a single of her own.

Rebecca Lust threw two shutout innings.

Jackson won its opener with Thomasville 5-1. Thomasville defeated Hephzibah 16-0 to advance to Saturday’s elimination game.

The winner of the Thomasville-Long County game will have to beat Jackson twice to make the Elite Eight.