The Lady Blue Tide softball team had to wait a little longer than normal to have a game in Ludowici, but they finally welcomed their home crowd to their newly renovated field on Wednesday, August 23. They hosted the Richmond Hill Wildcats in a non-region matchup.

Unfortunately, it was a sour ending to the home opener for the defending Region 3-AAA champions. Despite opening up a four-run lead in the first five innings, the Tide fell 9-5 after an eight-run sixth inning by the Wildcats.

The game started as well as it could have for the Lady Tide as they plated three runs in the first. Two of those came off the bat of Ciara O’Brien, who reached first on an error that allowed Jersi Lester to score from first and O’Brien to get all the way home.

Ainsley Anderson brought home senior Emma Smith on a double to put the Tide up 3-0. Apart from those runs in the first, the first five innings of the game were pretty tightly contested.

After allowing a run in the second, the Tide loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning with no outs. They could only manage a single run, however, on O’Brien’s sacrifice fly to left.

O’Brien put the Tide’s fifth and final run on the board with a single in the bottom of the fourth. It looked like the Tide were going to roll to their second win of the year.

The sixth inning completely changed that. The Wildcats loaded the bases on a no-out walk and proceeded to score eight runs off five hits to take a 9-5 lead.

The Tide could not answer across the final two innings. This is the Tide’s fourth straight loss since opening the year with a 14-4 win over Brunswick.

They will be on the road Monday, Aug. 28 against Tattnall County before looking to avenge an 8-0 loss to Toombs County at home Wednesday, Aug. 30.