The Long County Blue Tide baseball team is one win away from hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2003. After Tuesday’s late rally against the Appling County Pirates to win 7-3, the team will look to make history later this week.

The first two innings remained scoreless, but it looked like the Tide would go up in the first as senior Brennan Lee opened with a single.

Senior Dwayne Rowe came up to bat and struck out, but on the third strike, Lee was picked off at second, immediately putting the Tide in a two-out hole.

Senior Jacob Struble came up and crushed a shot to the left field that likely could have been a home run had the wind caught it just right. He settled for a double after the ball one-hopped the fence.

The Tide could not take advantage of Struble’s moonshot as Daniel Edwards grounded out to end the inning.

Senior Blake Holland led the Tide defense for three straight outs in the second, but the score remained tied at zero going into the third.

Holland sat down two more batters to bring his streak to six straight before allowing a walk and a hit. The Tide were able to get out of the two-on jam to keep the Pirates scoreless.

Senior Cole Moss opened the bottom of the third with a single. He stole both second and third to set up Rowe at the plate.

Rowe smacked a single to score Moss, but got greedy and tried to get a double as he was thrown out, but not before putting the Tide up 1-0.

It was the Pirates turn to get on the board after a walk and an out. The Pirates got on the board on an RBI single to tie the game.

However, the Tide did not let this bother them as they pulled off a double play to end the inning. The Tide got a hit off Holland’s pop up to shallow left, but it was not enough as the score remained tied at one going into the fifth.

The game was paused for about a 12-minute sun delay and this seemed to turn things in favor of the Tide.

Sophomore Landon Runyon took the mound in place of Holland. Runyon gave up a single on his first pitch and eventually scored two outs later to make the score 2-1 Pirates going into the bottom of the inning.

The Tide turned it on in the bottom of the fifth as Lee singled and Struble moved him to third after Rowe went out in his third appearance at the plate.

Edwards walked for the second time as did Joseph Cammack to load the bases with two outs. Sophomore Shannon Filkins came to the plate and ripped a two-out single into left field to score two and give the Tide the 3-2 lead.

He advanced to second after a wild, late throw to first base.

Filkins knew that he had to look for the gaps as he faced a two-out situation that almost any high school baseball player dreams of.

“I saw their shortstop playing the gap. I was going for backside middle and I saw the first pitch, curveball and I anticipated the fastball coming up next,” Filkins said. “I saw the pitch, right down the middle, swing and it ended up good. Just gotta look at the gaps.”

In his first appearance in the plate, Runyon followed up his fellow sophomore with his own single into right field as the Tide went up 5-2 going into the sixth.

Runyon allowed one run in the top of the sixth, credited to an error at second base. Despite this, the Tide held on and were up 5-3 going into the bottom half of the inning.

Moss took an awkward looking pitch to the head to open the bottom of the sixth. He was fine, however, and took first base.

Lee singled to move Moss to second and they both stole second and third to give Rowe a chance to increase their lead. He was not able to get on base, but the sacrifice RBI gave the Tide a 6-3 lead.

Struble followed up Rowe’s sacrifice with a shot to the right field wall that, much like his first inning hit, nearly left Fulcher Field.

He scored Lee and gave the Tide a 7-3 lead. As he rounded second however, there was some confusion for Struble as he stopped and turned back to second before being thrown out.

Edwards singled and Cammack was able to reach first on an error after a dropped third strike to put two on base with two outs.

Filkins was not able to repeat his heroics from the fifth as the Tide went into the final inning up by four runs.

Freshman Kenny Pickens took the mound and a throwing error at first put one on base with no outs. A single two batters later put one on first and third before Pickens hit a batter to load the bases with one out.

Pickens pulled out an impressive strikeout to get the second out in the inning before a final ground out ended the game with a 7-3 win for the Tide.

With the win, the Tide move to 18-5 and 7-3 in the region. Most importantly, the team is now one win away from hosting a playoff game for the first time in almost 20 years.

Head coach James Hobbs knows the importance of the next two games and he said his players do too. He is confident in his senior leaders.

“They know what’s at stake. They know the goal,” Hobbs said. “Before the game, we talked about it and it don’t get to ‘em. They’re coming out to compete, they’re coming out to win. We know what’s at stake and we got good leadership on the team. We got guys that hold people accountable…we’re excited and we think we have a good opportunity.”

The Tide travel to Baxley Thursday, April 21 before returning home to close out the series on Friday, April 22.