BOILING SPRING LAKES - Through six innings, it’s doubtful that things could have gone much better for the South Columbus High softball team Friday night as it held a 2-0 lead in a fourth-round game of the state 2A playoffs against Waccamaw Conference rival South Brunswick.

SCHS pitcher Brandi Fowler had allowed only one hit and had put together a stretch of retiring 13 straight Lady Cougar batters. A double by Joye Buffkin had brought home Courtney Long, and Buffkin then scored on a single by Kelly Strickland in the top of the sixth inning.

Coach Brett Burroughs’ Lady Stallions, who had suffered a pair of narrow losses to SBHS in regular-season play, was three outs away from advancing to the June 1-2 state 2A softball finals at Raleigh’s Walnut Creek complex.

But the South Brunswick squad rose to the occasion in the final inning as the Lady Cougars quickly tied the score on a run-scoring triple by Carrie Evanson and an RBI single by Ashley Edge. Edge advanced all the way to third following a throwing error and raced home moments later on Ragan Evans’ fly ball to leftfield to end the game.

“It’s a heart-breaker,” Boroughs said. “I hate it for our girls because they have played their hearts out in the playoffs. South Brunswick didn’t roll over, and they did what they had to.”

South Columbus, which tied for third in the Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference this season, closed its season with a 17-7 record.

South Brunswick, which got another strong pitching performance from Candace Piner, improved its record to 23-4 while gaining its first-ever berth in the state softball semi-finals.

South Columbus had defeated its first three playoff opponents – East Duplin, South Lenoir and Edenton Holmes – by a combined margin of 24-2 and became the first fast-pitch softball team from Columbus County to advance past three rounds of the state playoffs.