After a mid-season slump Bryan County closed regular season play winning six of its final seven games to secure a spot in the Class A-DII state softball playoffs.
That momentum carried over into the first round of the playoffs as the No. 4 seed Redskins (17-13) swept Region 5 champion Johnson County, 8-1 and 5-4, Monday to move into a second-round matchup at Irwin County (24-2) next Tuesday. The teams will play a doubleheader with a first-game start time of 4:30 p.m. The if game would be on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
Irwin County is ranked No. 1 in the state by the AJC and is riding a 22-game win streak after sweeping Marion County, 6-2 and 8-1, on Monday. The Indians do not have a senior on the team. Sophomore pitcher Brooklyn Gordon is 15-0 and they have four starters hitting better than .400 led by sophomore Brynlee Brown at .526 with six home runs.
“What a crazy day for us,” Coach Jessica Shroeder-Cooper said. “We were the only No. 4 seed to advance. We did it. Go Redskins!”
Cooper is in her second year at Bryan County after a 12-run as an assistant coach at Richmond Hill and the Redskins’ playoff fate wasn’t decided until the final region game of the season when they beat Claxton, 13-1, to finish in a fourth-place tie with Portal.
Bryan County, which had missed the playoffs the last two years, advanced thanks to its two regular season wins over the Panthers and Cooper said her team is looking to make the most of the opportunity.
“We prepped really well for what we knew would be a very difficult environment,” Cooper said of the trip to Wrightsville. “The mental game has been one of our weak points this year but Monday night it was not.
“The girls have been working incredibly hard on staying mentally strong, composed and executing,” Cooper said. “We took away their small ball game better than we have all year.
“Camryn Parker was a hot corner vacuum and Lila Hannah threw a game one gem. She gave up only two hits, had five strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter. Their run was unearned.”
Hannah, a sophomore who has been pitching extremely well down the stretch, also started game two and pitched the first three innings. She departed in favor of Eris Deal with the score tied, 2-2.
“Eris came in and dominated,” Cooper said. “Emily Johnson got us on the board first with a two-run bomb to center field. It was a tough game as we battled back and forth but we were able to hang on at the end.”
Losing games in the late innings has been an issue with the Redskins all season. They carried a 5-2 lead into the seventh but Johnson County scored twice before Deal—no pun intended—closed the deal.
“We stayed calm and made some key plays,” Cooper said of the seventh inning dramatics. “Eris made some key pitches, too.”
While Irwin County will obviously provide a strong test Cooper does not believe her team will go into Monday’s games intimidated.
“We play in a strong region,” Cooper said. “Emanuel County won the state championship last year and Screven County and Metter are good teams, too. Our record could be better but we lost a lot of close games against good teams.”
ECI, Screven and Metter also advanced as the region, as Cooper pointed out, the only region to have all four of its teams win opening round series.