Hurricane Irma turned up many things over this past week — prep sports schedules being probably one of the lesser important in the grand scheme of life but nonetheless significant in terms of softball in Bulloch County.
Statesboro, Bulloch Academy, Portal and Southeast Bulloch all saw games from Sept. 7 to Sept. 12 be canceled and reshuffled, turning the schedules on their heads due to the overwhelming number of region games that were set to take place over that span. However, one thing did remain set: the Southeast Bulloch Diamond Day tournament.
Hosted by SEB at the Brooklet Recreation Department fields, the tournament will see seven teams from around the area compete in a round-robin format. Of the Bulloch County teams, Statesboro, SEB, and BA will all be in attendance during some portion of Saturday's tournament. ECI, Tattnall County, Metter and Bryan County will all play as well.
Statesboro (9-4, 3-1) comes into today's tournament as the highest ranked team of the group, coming in at No. 12 in class 5A via the MaxPreps.com algorithms. The Blue Devils are riding a seven-game winning streak behind the arm of sophomore pitcher Brinson Anne Rogers, who routinely strikes out double-digit batters and played a major part of SHS upsetting No. 1 Wayne County 6-3 on Aug. 31.
After a rough 0-3 start to their season, SE Bulloch (9-3, 8-0) finally rounded into form once they hit region play and haven't lost a game since Aug. 15. Anchored by the uber-athletic Emily Barnard at the top of their lineup, SE Bulloch has found an extra arm in their lineup as well with the emergence of freshman Shylah James.
The GISA's lone representative Bulloch Academy (5-4-2, 1-2) has seen their season become a big of a rollercoaster — never more apparent in their last three results: W Trinity-Dublin 5-3, L Pinewood 3-2, L Trinity-Dublin 13-4. Baylee Rogers has been a consistently good pitcher, but the offense goes in-and-out without warning.