It was supposed to be a tuneup week for the start of the Class A-DII state baseball playoffs but it instead turned into a demolition derby for the Bryan County baseball team.
Coming off a 4-2 win at Screven County which he thought might get the Redskins’ season turned around, Coach Kyle Farmer instead saw his team lose any momentum that victory may have generated.
Bryan County started the week losing to Islands and Savannah Country Day and ended it last Thursday with a 10-0 loss to Tattnall County. It was outscored 33-11 by teams who ended their seasons with a combined record of 25-57.
The Redskins (13-15) finished fourth in Region 3A-DII behind Emanuel County Institute, Metter and Screven County. The win at Screven was the only one it was able to pull off against those top three teams.
It was enough, however, to give Farmer hope going into the final week and the postseason as he thought his team had finally played up to its potential. It didn’t, obviously, turn out that way.
“Bad week?” said Farmer rhetorically after the loss to Tattnall. “It was a bad month. We lost eight of our last nine games.
“We’ve got three practices to get some things worked out before we go to Wilcox County, which is a very good team.”
The Patriots (18-7) are hitting .344 as a team and have eight starters hitting .300 or better led by sophomore first baseman Deacon Harper who is hitting .396 with 21 RBI. Third baseman Tre Griffin is hitting .394.
The two played two games on Wednesday in the best-of-three series with the "if" game scheduled for Thursday.
The Redskins are currently in a collective batting slump which has seen their team average drop to .269. Freshman Gunner Ennis is hitting .354 followed by senior AJ Thomas at .337, sophomore Eli Koskela at .329 and senior Cooper Ennis at .312.
Cooper Ennis and Koskela will be the pitchers for Wednesday’s games with Thomas coming back on Thursday with everyone else on deck.
Bryan County is a team which likes to play small ball as it is devoid of power. As a team it has 31 doubles, five triples and two homers. Koskela leads in doubles with 10 and has a triple and a homer among his hits. Cooper Ennis leads in triples with three.
In order to be successful, it is imperative the Redskins keep the game close. Unfortunately during the current stretch that has not been the case. It was best illustrated last Friday when the Warriors jumped on Thomas for six runs in the first inning.
Tattnall added runs in the second and third and closed it out with two in the fifth. Bryan County meanwhile was leaving six runners stranded including three in the third inning when it loaded the bases with one out only to see Thomas and Gunner McClelland strikeout to end the threat.
“We can’t hit the baseball,” Farmer said. “We’re going to practice Friday, enjoy the Easter weekend with our families and then go to work on Monday to right the ship and focus on Wilcox County which is going to be an uphill battle.
“The best thing about this game was we were able to get all of our seniors in the game. They’ve been here four years and they’ve been important to this program.”
The Redskins have had mixed success in baseball over the years but this is the fourth straight season they have been in the state playoffs. The senior group has posted a 66-52 overall record.