If he had programmed it on a computer Coach Kyle Farmer couldn’t have asked for a better night to debut his second Bryan County baseball team.

In a game which featured pre-game ceremonies honoring former longtime coach Albert Lodge and going up against a team coached by another coach with legendary status, the Redskins exploded for seven runs in the second inning and never looked back in beating Jenkins, 14-4, Tuesday night.

“You couldn’t ask for a better night to have Coach Albert Lodge come out here and celebrate him and you couldn’t ask for a better night to have one of the greatest coaches in Chatham County history here.

“To be able to have them together on a beautiful night in Pembroke, there’s nothing better. The weather was perfect.”

Jenkins is coached by Seth Gaspin who has 414 wins in his career primarily at Jenkins following a stint at alma mater Memorial Day School where he won a GISA state championship.

Getting to 415, however, proved to be elusive due to a strong start by sophomore pitcher Gunner Ennis and a bottom third of a Redskins lineup which produced five hits, six runs scored and three RBI.

Ennis—perhaps it was nerves—got off to a shaky start. He walked the bases loaded in the first inning before working his way out of the jam and had no trouble retiring the Warriors in the next two.

Following Ennis and his three hitless innings were Jordan Fabin and Harrison Adams who enjoyed pitching stress free thanks to a comfortable lead.

“We have them on a pitch count,” Farmer said of his pitchers. “We’re building them up for the region coming up. Coach (Johnathan) Edwards, our new pitching coach, is doing a fantastic job in preparing these guys and putting trust in them to go out there and give us innings.”

While the pitchers were doing their thing Redskins hitters were banging out 10 hits and capitalizing on seven walks and five Jenkins errors.

Ashton Martin, the eighth-place hitter, led the way with three hits and three runs scored. Gunner McClelland and Keller Groover, batting seventh and ninth, respectively, each had a hit and combined to score three runs. Each had an RBI.

“Martin had a heckuva game at the plate and that’s what we have to have from the bottom part of our lineup to be successful,” Farmer said. “When the top doesn’t do their job it’s big to have the bottom half of our order pick us up and score runs.”

On this night the top four hitters in the lineup combined to go 3-for-12 but they drew four walks and scored a combined six runs. It’s not as if they were unproductive:  leadoff hitter Braylin Deloach drove in two runs, Ennis had a triple and RBI, and cleanup hitter Eli Koskela had a two-run single.

In the big second the Redskins sent 11 batters to the plate and scored all of their runs with two outs. Leadoff hitter Harrison Adams reached on a third strike error and after the next two batters went down Martin got the rally started with a single, Groover followed with an RBI single and it snowballed from there.

The Redskins tacked on a run in the third, added five in the fifth and then closed it out on the mercy rule when McClelland delivered a two-single to score Fabian who had walked with two out.

“Kyle is going to do a great job here,” Gaspin said afterwards. “He’s a baseball guy. As for me , I would like to get to 500 but it’s going to be tough. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Bryan County will be at home on Saturday with a doubleheader against Commerce starting at 11 a.m. before going to Bulloch Academy next Tuesday.