It would be nice to be able to refer to the Bryan County baseball team as the Dirty Dozen. The only thing is you need a dozen players in order to do so.
The Redskins, a No. 4 seed, pulled off a mild upset in the opening round of the Class A-DII playoffs as they knocked off No. 1 Georgia Military College. Bryan County won the opening game of the best-of-three series 7-2, dropped a 4-3 decision in eight innings and then came back to post an impressive 12-0 win in the deciding game to advance to the Sweet 16..
“We took only 11 players to Milledgeville,” Coach Kyle Farmer said. “We didn’t go hoping to win. We went expecting to win.”
Actually, the 4-3 loss in the second game was reversed upon an appeal, the basis of which was that the GMC pitcher had exceeded the pitch count of 120 for tournament games. The third game was played pending the appeal with the GHSA eventually declaring Bryan County the winner.
In beating the Bulldogs, the Redskins (19-14) earned the right to play at Charlton County (26-6) in another best-of-three series starting with a doubleheader on Wednesday. The if game will be played on Thursday.
All season Farmer talked about how strong Region 3A-DII was and it was justified as ECI, Metter and Screven County joined the Redskins in advancing. Bryan County and Irwin County were the only No. 4 seeds to win their opening series.
All that’s fine and dandy but the Redskins now find themselves going up against one of the top baseball programs in the state regardless of classification. The Indians are currently ranked No. 5 in Class A-DII and 21st in all classes.
Under veteran coach Thad Marchman, who has won more than 400 games after taking over in 2007, the Indians won state championships in 2012, 2013 and 2023. They were runner-up in 2011 and they are accustomed to making deep runs in the playoffs every year.
“We played in a great, tough environment (at GMC),” Farmer said. “It will help us going to Charlton County which has a heck of an environment. They’re a great program which is always in the hunt for a state championship.
“Baseball is a game of momentum,” Farmer said. “These guys earned the right to play a great program. They’re a baseball community that takes pride in their baseball.
“But in playoff baseball anything can happen. I think they’ll know we’re not an ordinary No. 4 seed.”
While the Redskins have been a light hitting team all season, they made the most of their opportunities at Georgia Military.
In the opener they had nine hits and broke on top with three runs in the second inning and after the Bulldogs trimmed it to 3-2 after four Bryan County scored twice in the fifth and sixth innings to salt it away.
“We’ve been a team all year that has scored late,” Farmer said. “Ashton Martin pitched an outstanding game and Kelly Groover came in in relief and closed it out.”
The Redskins had only four hits in the second game with Gunner Ennis’ three-run homer in the fifth inning accounting for all of their runs.
Harrison Adams, who has developed into the ace of the staff, kept the Redskins in it and threw more than 100 pitches, Farmer said, which was a season high for the senior right-hander.
“He pitched a great game,” Farmer said. “He’s been truly a bright spot this year. I went out to take him out and he told me he wanted to stay in the game. He said, ‘Coach I can get this guy,’ and he did. He had earned that right.
“Kelly gave up a walk-off homer. He was doing something we hadn’t asked him to do all season, pitching in back-to-back games.”
After getting home at close to 2 a.m. Thursday morning the Redskins barely went to sleep before getting up to bus back to Milledgeville where they wasted no time in taking charge.
Bryan County had only five hits in the clincher but took full advantage of six GMC errors and scored nine runs in the first before closing it out in the fifth on the mercy rule.
“I don’t remember any details of the first inning other than guys just kept scoring,” Farmer said. “When you put the ball in play things can happen.”