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Bulloch's 12U squad comes up just short
12U Baseball
Bulloch's Greg Peden fires a pitch against Colquitt County during the 12-U Georgia State All-Star baseball championships at Mill Creek Regional Park on Friday, June 24.

It’s been a busy week for many of the Bulloch All-Stars 12-U team. About half the team play for the Around the Horn travel team who played in the Perfect Game World Series which started last week. 


The team’s success spilled into this week as they ended up as runners up in that tournament which ended Tuesday. From there the kids and parents packed things up and raced over to Mill Creek Park for the Georgia State 12-U baseball tournament which started Tuesday at 4:00. The team got to the park about 3:30 and promptly lost their opener to Wayne County 6-0. 


Thankfully for them the tournament was double elimination and they then went on quite a run. In the loser’s bracket Bulloch beat Bryan County 11-2 on Wednesday and then had a pair of games Thursday. Bulloch defeated Tucker 19-1 and then knocked off Swainsboro/Emanuel County 8-4 moments later putting them into the loser’s bracket semifinals Friday. 


Friday morning, they won their fourth straight game with an exciting 4-2 come from behind victory over Moultrie. After that, Bulloch ran out of gas as they lost again to Wayne County 14-0 ending their run with a third-place state finish.   


“Really only one team will be celebrating at the end of this tournament,” said coach Josh Cole. “I have coached a lot of teams throughout the years and most of the time it ends with your guys feeling down. It’s hard in the moment but it’s important to look at what we were able to accomplish. I feel like we had the toughest district in the state and to finish third here is a great accomplishment.” 


Cole was one of many parents who wrapped up eight days of baseball and admitted he felt the long stretch of games may have finally gotten to the kids. 


“Many of these guys played three games in two different towns on Tuesday,” said Cole. “Eight straight days is a lot of baseball. If you look at expectations with all things considered I think this group really overachieved. Our guys put together a heck of a run having to come through the loser’s bracket. We won four-in-a-row to get to this game including a big win over a very good Moultrie team this morning.” 


We made a great run into this tournament placing second in the district tournament,” said Cole. “We took the Vidalia team who is in the championship here all the way to the wore before losing 3-2. I couldn’t be prouder of these kids. They fought their butts off and had to switch positions and we were running out of pitching, but they didn’t complain and kept on fighting till the end.”