By HARVEY SIMPSON

Dispatch Sports Editor

CORDELE — Crisp County’s 10-and-under machine pitch girls softball team came oh so close to earning a trip to state in Thursday’s Georgia Recreation and Parks Association District 3 finals.

Needing two wins over a previously unbeaten Colquitt County team if they were to make it to state, the Crisp girls almost got the first of them only to fall 10-9 in a thriller.

“That was a good one — about as good as I’ve ever been involved in,” Crisp coach Wes Jenkins said. “For us to come in and play as well as we did against a team as good as they are really showed the heart our girls have.

“There probably weren’t but about 16 folks — the 12 players and four coaches (Matt Mitchell, Jim Pack and Blake Hobbs were assistants) — who thought we’d be where we were but we showed everybody we deserved to be there.”

One thing that hurt Crisp, which beat Lee County 3-2 in extra innings in its tourney opener, defeated Bainbridge 14-2, lost 14-4 to Colquitt and then topped Lee again 8-6 to reach the finals, was a lack of pre-tournament practice.

“Due to the time constraints brought about by all the rain that resulted in a late regular season finish, we only got to work together as team for about two weeks,” Jenkins said.

“For us to come into a tournament and go as far as we did while molding a team in such a short time was just an an extraordinary feat.

“While the title game loss to Colquitt had to be the highlight of our play, it was also mighty sweet to get the two wins we got over a Lee team that didn’t think it was supposed to lose.”

While Jenkins was hesitant to single out any individuals for their play in the tournament, he noted the heart of the batting order — Parker Krause, Jessie Tison, Carson Pack and Sidney Folsom — “really came though for us by putting runs on the board when we needed them.

“Overall, our performance left me on Cloud Nine as even in a losing effort the girls did exactly what we asked them to do. As the result, we were able to stop the merry-go-’round Colquitt cranked up against us the first time we met. I’m so proud of them and all of Crisp County can be, too.”

Jenkins said a special thanks is due to all the parents and the fans who supported the team in the tournament.