Thomas Heyward's softball team's quest for a second straight SCISA Class AA championship ended Wednesday with a 3-2 loss to Marlboro Academy in Game 2 of the best-of-three series. The Rebels, who lost Game 1 4-3, had the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but senior standout Ashlie Layman struck out. She had homered earlier.

 Read more in next week's Jasper County Sun.

"The great men of earth are the shadow men, who, having lived and died, now live again and forever through their undying thoughts. Thus living, though their footfalls are heard no more, their voices are louder than the thunder, and unceasing as the flow of tides or air." ~ Henry Ward Beecher

If you could have known my brother, Dr. George L. Sheppard, Jr. (1938-2012), a neurologist from Winchester, Virginia, you'd know Mr. Beecher told the gospel truth.