As Wednesday dawned and brought with it the first round of the Class AAAAA state tournament, the Statesboro softball team had never won a state playoff series in the fast-pitch era.
    They waited forever... and most of another day.
    An afternoon storm postponed what was scheduled to be a 5 p.m. start against Bainbridge. The first pitch of the first round doubleheader didn't occur until after 7 p.m., but by 11:40 p.m., the Devils had a pair of wins and a ticket to the second round punched after wins of 13-5 and 8-0.
    “Im so proud of these girls,” Statesboro coach Jim Simmons, said. “There are a lot of beautiful smiling faces in the dugout and on the field tonight.  All the credit goes to them.”
    The opening game was a story about control: Statesboro had it, Bainbridge didn’t. 
    After Statesboro pitcher Brinson Anne rogers threw 10 straight balls — walking two batters — she then went on to strike out the side, and ended the game with 16 strikeouts.  As for Bainbridge, a mixture of walks, balls and hit batsmen resulted in five runs in the first two innings despite only one Statesboro hit.
    “We were able to keep the cooler head," Simmons said. “We had the delay, the rain, the conditions weren’t the best, but Brinson Anne beared down and got us through the early innings.”
    Bainbridge came back to cut the lead to 5-2 in the top of the fourth, but the Blue Devils came back in the bottom of the inning with a single by Avery Wiggins, a double by Bailee Roberts and a 3-run blast to straight-away center by Rogers that traveled an estimated 230 feet.
    “That was fantastic,” said Simmons. “I felt like Brinson Anne was really seeing the ball well at the plate tonight. I also felt like Bailee Roberts really came through for us.”
    The Blue Devils added two runs in the fifth on a Bailee Roberts 2-run double and then Roberts put the game away with another 2-run double in the sixth which provided Statesboro an 8 run lead and a run rule victory.
    Game two started off on a similar note as Bainbridge pitcher Lexie Delbrey walked the first five Statesboro batters to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead.
    In the second inning the Bearcats continued to be their worst enemy as a two-out fly ball lofted to center by Morgan Thompson was dropped, allowing two runs to score and giving Statesboro a 4-0 lead.
    Bailee Roberts then continued to swing a hot stick,  coming through with an RBI single to left to bring home Thompson and make it 5-0. Capping the scoring in the inning, Rogers came through with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Roberts for a 6-0 Statesboro lead.
    The Blue Devils tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh as pinch runner Hartlee Faircloth scored on a wild pitch and McKenzie Wilkerson added a sacrifice fly plating Adrienne Newell.
    Rogers was stellar on the mound once again with 14 strikeouts in the game, propelling the Blue Devils to their first ever series victory in the fast-pitch era.
    “You can’t say enough about Brinson Anne’s performance in the circle,” said Simmons. “She gave us great effort on the mound in both games once again tonight.”
    Next up for Statesboro, the Blue Devils will travel to Locust Grove for round two of the Class AAAAA playoffs.