Though a steady shower eventually washed out what should have been a 16-0 win for Southeast Bulloch, it did nothing to dampen their spirits now that the Yellow Jackets are baseball region champions for the first time since 1980. 
    But by now it’s no secret Southeast Bulloch didn’t exactly have the most treacherous path to its title. The new region 3-AAA is not stocked with many teams on the Yellow Jackets' level. Many of the Savannah city schools struggle to field baseball teams, let alone throw strikes and cleanly field ground balls.
    Outside of some tough games against Jenkins and Islands, Southeast Bulloch mowed through its region schedule in a way that was as much cumbersome as it was sovereign. In 10 games against Savannah, Beach, Windsor Forest, Groves and Johnson  the Yellow Jackets posted a +178 run advantage, with none of those games making it past five innings.
    “We didn’t ask to be in this region. We were placed here,” said SEB coach Brandon Peterson. “Our job was to win games regardless of who the opponent is, and we did that. We were the best team in our region and the credit goes through the kids.”
    Jenkins and Islands were the lone schools who kept SEB’s run to the region title from being mundane. On March 31 the Warriors beat SEB 7-6 in Savannah to force a tie between the two schools after SEB won the initial meeting. SEB eeked by the Sharks 4-3 and 4-1 in a home-and-home series, and SEB held the upper hand off  of run differential advantage over Jenkins.
    So long as SEB didn’t lose another region game following their March 31 loss,  they’d lock up the trophy. A 7-0 region run later, SEB stands as champions of region 3-AAA.
    “I’m proud of them," Peterson said. "This has been a goal of ours for some time now. We’ve played in the region title game the past two years and came up short, so I think that got the kids hungry to come back this season.”
    Southeast Bulloch faced tougher competition in non-region games, but was far from out of its depth. SEB was 3-5 in those games — with four of the losses coming by one run to opponents like Statesboro, South Effingham, Coffee County and Emanuel County Institute. All four of those teams are playoff qualifiers in their respective classifications, meaning SEB has proven that it can hang around with anyone that pops up in the playoff bracket.
    “Our guys have been able to adjust to seeing low quality pitching to high quality pitching from game to game, and that can be a challenge,” Peterson said. “Our guys did a good job of adjusting to that this season without ever really slipping up.”
    With the wins on Tuesday SEB also locked up the No. 1 seed for their region in the state playoffs, which — as of Tuesday — would seed them against Monroe High School from region 1-AAA in Albany. Monroe is 6-10 on its season and 5-6 in their region alongside other ranked Class AAA teams Worth County and Crisp County.
    Between Toombs County (9-13) on Friday and Monroe tentatively next week, SEB could have some smooth sailing until the second round. The Yellow Jackets took care of a region that was theirs for the taking, but the new question is just how far they can go.