The Long County Blue Tide softball team is coming off another playoff run in the 2023 season where they were defending their first region championship. While the season ended with them coming up just short of a region title, they are looking forward to getting back on track in 2024.

The 2023 season saw a large group of freshmen on the team - nine to be exact - and most of them getting starting playing time. Six freshmen played starting roles during the season and two of them were the main pitchers for the team.

All nine freshmen return for the 2024 season with a year of high school experience under their belt. That, another large freshman class, and a small but experienced senior class has head coach Harley Kennedy excited for the team’s chances.

“Moving forward, the youth is good,” Kennedy said. “We’re still very young with just three seniors. But I think having so many freshmen starting last year, we do have some type of idea of where we should be this year. That one year of experience is huge for our young girls.”

Region 3-AAA will look different for the Lady Tide this year as they lose Savannah Christian and St. Vincent’s, but gain Islands, Jenkins and Southeast Bulloch. The latter of those teams, as well as a returning Calvary Day, will be the teams to watch for this year.

“Competition wise, we are kind of in the same boat,” Kennedy said. “We now have Southeast Bulloch who is very strong on both offense and defense and is a big competitor. Calvary has competed with us in the past. They’ll be tough.”

For softball, region 3-AAA is smaller due to most of the public schools in Savannah not playing softball. This, and the new power rankings system to make the state playoffs, has caused a change in the region play as games will now be decided in three-game series.

With so many fewer teams, it also means that the non-region schedule is more competitive due to the team needing to schedule bigger and often tougher schools.

“With our youth and our pitching staff, (the three game series) does make it a little harder but it does give us a bigger chance,” Kennedy said. “There’s pros and cons to having a smaller region, but we have done well with it in the past. With the way the playoff points system works we’ve had to schedule tougher and bigger teams and we’ve also had to find some teams that are comparable to us. It’s been a little challenging on the scheduling side because you’re trying to figure out the best way to get points and not lose points. All of August, we are really focusing on our non-region schedule, getting better and preparing for region play.”

The Lady Tide has made the state playoffs each of the last two seasons and they are looking to do the same in 2024. Kennedy is confident that they will be in the postseason come October and hopes they can make a run past the second round, something the team has never done.

“This team definitely has the opportunity to make a run in the state playoffs,” Kennedy said. “Like I said, we are young, but I hate to use that as an excuse for us to not be able to compete with bigger schools or schools that still have the talent at the older ages. We really focus on doing things right and making sure that all of June and July we have pushed making sure that we are doing things right and that we compete. We have a competitive mindset, so I think the young ones have bought in and the older ones have done a very good job of leading the others to know that we should be here and we should be able to compete with these other schools.”

After games with St. Vincent’s on Monday and Richmond Hill on Tuesday were washed out, Long County will travel to Metter on August 8 and is scheduled to host Richmond Hill on August 12.