“Everything is Better in Metter” is a nice Chamber of Commerce slogan. Unfortunately for the Bryan County baseball team that jingoistic rhyme proved to be true.

Needing a win to clinch its first region championship since 1987, the Redskins couldn’t pull it off as they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Tigers last Friday in the third game of their series.

Coupled with a 6-0 win in the second game of the Region 3A-DI series it enabled Metter, gunning for its third straight region title, to move into a tie with the Redskins in the loss column and give it the tiebreaker advantage should the two teams finish tied for first.

Despite the loss, the Redskins are not out of the running.

The region title will be decided next Tuesday when Metter (7-12-1, 6-2) hosts Screven County (8-11, 4-4). A win means a third straight championship for the Tigers. A loss gives it to Bryan County (14-9, 7-2).

Needless to say, for one day the Redskins and their fans will be Screven’s biggest fans. Metter and Screven have split their two games this season, the Tigers winning the opener of a doubleheader, 14-5, before the Gamecocks bounced back for a 7-3 win.

Regardless of the outcome, the Redskins are assured of no worse than a second-place finish which means they will host a state playoff series for the first time since that memorable 1987 season.

The state baseball playoffs begin April 23 and Bryan County, depending on its finish, will play either the third-place or fourth-place team from Region 2. Through Tuesday’s games that would in all probability be either Dublin or Jefferson County.

Bryan County’s ascension into being a title contender is no accident.

Coach Justin Covington has a senior laden team which he has built and developed since taking over the program five years ago. Covington is 66-52 overall and this marks the third straight season he has led the Redskins to a state playoff berth.

Senior standouts Justin Beck and Sean Kelly Hill are four-year starters who know what success is all about.

Beck has been an outstanding long-range shooter on the Redskins’ basketball playoff teams while Hill earned himself a spot in Bryan County history by quarterbacking the football team to a 12-2 record and a spot in the Final Four and the school’s first region championship.

The baseball team’s being one of the top teams in the region this season is no surprise to either.

“I think the buy in of everybody,” Beck, a outfielder/pitcher,  said when asked the strength of this year’s team. “I think the buy in, the friendship everybody has with one another. We’re close and someone is always picking someone up.

“You make mistakes in baseball, errors. No one gets down on anyone. We’re all in it together.”

Kelly points to the team’s hitting and defense as key contributors to what he hopes will be a region championship and a playoff run.

“Our infield defense is good,” Hill said. “I think our infield is the best in the region and our pitchers do a good job of getting ground balls.

“I think we’re hitting the ball really good,” Hill said. “Our situational hitting, moving runners along, getting people around to score has been good.”

The Redskins suffered a major loss when Tanner Ennis had to undergo shoulder surgery last December due to a football injury. It cost Ennis his basketball season and his return to baseball sees him playing only in a designated hitter role in which he is limited to bunting as he can’t yet take a full swing.

Last year Ennis, whose brother Cooper plays shortstop and pitches in relief, was outstanding as a leadoff hitter and was lights out as a hard throwing relief pitcher.

“It’s been hard on some of the younger guys who have had to come in and fill in at spots,” Beck said. “But they’re doing a good job of making up for Tanner’s absence.”

Hill and Ennis have been teammates and close friends since they were in grade school and while he hates it for Ennis, he also took a philosophical approach to having lost a key player.

“I look at it from a football standpoint,” Hill said. “It’s next man up. We’re depending on the next man to come in and get the job done. If he gets the job done everything will be good.”

It will really be good, all agreed, if the Gamecocks can do their job and beat Metter.