Bryan County will be at home but Richmond Hill will be traveling when the GHSA state softball playoffs start next Tuesday and run through the end of the week. This year’s tournament represents a change in format as there will be four Super Regional double elimination tournaments with the winners advancing to an Elite Eight tourney in Columbus. That double elimination event will determine the state champion.
The Redskins (15-4-1) earned the right to host by winning Region 3A-DI.
The other teams in the field are Pelham (3-12), Swainsboro (16-10) and the fourth-place team out of Region 4 in the Class A-DI Super Regional to be played Tuesday and Wednesday. The Region 4 representative will be decided in a region tournament this week. Coach Jason Roundtree’s team is in the midst of playing four games this week. Bryan County was at Southeast Bulloch on Tuesday and had Senior Night on Wednesday against St.
Vincent’s Academy before playing at ACE Charter in Macon on Friday.
Behind the pitching of senior righthander Hayden Joyner the Redskins appear to be peaking at the right time as they have won nine of their last 10 games.
Bryan County’s only loss in its current stretch is an 8-5 defeat at Portal when Roundtree pitched his second line pitchers. Joyner had shut out the Panthers, 8-0, earlier.
Richmond Hill (8-13) is going in the opposite direction as it has lost five of its last six games going into a Tuesday night game with South Effingham County. The Wildcats will be at Effingham County on Monday before hitting the road for tournament play.
The Wildcats were 5-1 in Region 1-7A play before dropping a pair of games to Lowndes County and then three to Colquitt.
That got them a No. 3 seed in the Super Regional at North Paulding.
Richmond Hill’s lone win in that stretch came against Glynn County when Maddie Stevens laid down a bases-loaded bunt in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 10-9 victory.
Bryan County will play the Region 4 team at 5 p.m. on Tuesday on the high school field with Pelham playing Swainsboro at the same time on the middle school field. The two winners and two losers will play one another at 7 p.m.
On Wednesday action will start at 3 p.m. when the two teams with a loss face off. At 5 p.m. the undefeated team plays that winner with a deciding game, if necessary, played at 7 p.m.
Of the teams in the field Bryan County played Swainsboro in the regular season and posted a 10-2 win.
Richmond Hill will play Carrollton (18-7) in its opening round game on Thursday while host North Paulding (20-2-1) takes on Archer (12-12). The format will be identical to the Bryan County regional setup. Game times are set by the host team.