The season is in its embryonic stages but Bryan County baseball coach Kyle Farmer has to be encouraged by his team’s most recent outings.

In wins over Jenkins County (8-2) on Monday night and against Islands (106) on Saturday afternoon the Redskins (4-3) scored late and got clutch pitching down the stretch to climb over .500 as they rebounded nicely from a 16-1 loss to Seabreeze, Fl., on Friday night.

The win over the War Eagles was Bryan County’s Region 3A-DII opener. The two teams will meet again Friday at Jenkins. Bryan County will be at Liberty County on Thursday and will host region favorite ECI on Tuesday.

Three pitchers combined to shut down Jenkins County with Ashton Martin getting the win in relief of starter Gunner Ennis. And, Harrison Adams, who got the win against Islands, shut down the War Eagles over the last two innings to earn the save.

Jenkins scored in the top of the fifth against Martin to tie the game, 2-2, but the Redskins scored in the bottom of the inning in a somewhat unorthodox manner: Ennis walked with one out and stole second before Gunner Mc-Clelland struck out for what should have been the third out.

However, the ball got away from the War Eagles catcher and McClelland beat the throw to first. Ennis was running on the third strike pitch to Mc-Clelland and he never stopped as he slid across the plate with what proved to be the winning run. Bryan County then put it out of reach in the sixth with five runs highlighted by McClelland’s two-run single with two out.

“We talk about it a lot, how tough this region is,” Farmer said. “We’re going to have to come to play every day.

“The Jenkins County coach does a fantastic job over there. They compete and every game in the region is going to be like this. We’re going to have to win the games we’re supposed to win and they’re going to be tight.”

The Redskins have a 13 man roster and Farmer and his staff have spent a lot of time working with players learning several different positions. That was never more evident than in the win over Islands.

Farmer made a pitching change against Islands which resulted in six position changes in a game in which the Redskins snapped a 6-6 tie by scoring two runs in the fifth and sixth innings. The win over the visiting Sharks capped a week in which the Redskins went 2-1 starting with a 7-6 win at Bulloch Academy on Tuesday.

Eli Koskela got the win against Islands pitching in relief of Adams who started and turned in a solid performance and deserved a better fate.

It was a good day for Koskela who had a pair of doubles to drive in runs in the first and second innings and then got out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh by inducing Islands’ Harrison Roelle to hit into a game-ending double play. Koskela handled Roelle’s one-hopper back to the mound with ease, firing home to catcher Ethan Williams who then threw to McClelland at first to end the game.

“I’ve been hitting pretty decent,” said Koskela who has also started at catcher. “We have to move people around and I’ll play anywhere coach needs me.

“I think we’re in pretty good shape going into region play,” Koskela said. “We still need to work on the little things… minimize errors, do a better job of holding runners on the bags.

“It’s just the little things that’s killing us right now. We’re in a really tough region. The teams are like us: they’re gritty. We’ve got to take care of business against Jenkins.”

Koskela’s move to the mound started a game of musical chairs: Koskela went from right field to pitching, Ennis from third base to shortstop, Braylin Deloach from shortstop to second base, Jordan Fabian went from left field to third, Adams went to left and Keller Groover from second to rightfield.

“That’s what we’re going to have to do with the numbers we’ve got,” Farmer said of the multiple shifts. “When we make a move, we have to make multiple moves. We’re trying to find where we’re consistent at, what we’re good at.”

Adams, a side-arming righthander, left after four innings holding a 6-5 lead. The Sharks got to Koskela for a run in the fifth to tie the game before the Redskins regained the lead for good in their half of the inning, scoring twice with two out on run-producing singles by Williams and Deloach. Bryan County put it out of reach in the sixth as Fabin doubled in a run and came around to score on a passed ball.