By now most GHSA baseball teams are well into region play — plenty of time for the good teams to have separated from the general pack.
    However in Bulloch County at least three teams are still waiting for that separation, while one looks to have already broken away from their constituents in Southeast Bulloch.
    As it stands right now, SEB is the only team in the county with a winning region record, winning overall record and tops in run differential by quite a large margin. The Yellow Jackets are 7-3, 5-0 in region and hold a run differential of +58. Those three losses all came by one run, and were all against teams 5A or higher.
    “We’ve won the games we were supposed to win, and in our non-region games we’ve been very competitive,” said head coach Brandon Peterson. “I’d still like to see our guys kick it up a notch.”
    Shadowing SEB in the county has been the lot of Statesboro, Bulloch Academy and Portal. Each with similar problems, and each facing similar struggles in region play. Barring significant turnarounds, these teams could be facing early playoff elimination.

Southeast Bulloch
    As already touched on, SEB has been a consistently good presence in their region going on years now. But this is the year SEB baseball may have a legit shot at winning the region title since 1985.
    Johnson, Beach, Savannah, Windsor Forest and Groves are all two-win teams, while Islands and Jenkins are average at best. Barring any injuries or epic collapses, SEB looks prime to win — if not possibly sweep — region 3-3A.
    In their out of region games, they’ve played the likes of Statesboro, Coffee County and South Effingham — playing each to competitive one-run losses. SEB is undefeated against teams in their classification or lower.
    Behind the arms of Bryce Harnage and Tyler Thorton with some timely hitting to boot, SEB is poised to make some history in 2017.
    “Our pitching has been where things have started for us this year,” Peterson said. “We’ve had almost all quality starts, and it’s helped us be in every game this year.”
 
Portal
    Portal has seen numerous struggles this season, most notably on the pitching mound. The Panthers have given up a region-high 166 runs in 15 games, which comes out to an average of 11.1 runs per game.
    The lack of experienced arms outside of Landon Stephens and Jake Brown has been Portal’s achilles heel, and it’s totally overwhelmed the average offense that could get a good staff by to many more wins compared to their 4-11 overall record.
    “We knew coming into the season we were going to have a young team,” said head coach Dennis Moore. “Defense has been an area that’s hurt us, and our two senior pitchers have gotten healthier as the season has moved along.”
    Along with Montgomery County, Portal stands as the only winless teams in region 3-A play. Eight of Portal’s 11 losses have come by eight runs or more, and the Panthers are far out of a necessary seed for a playoff spot in the class A power ratings.
    It’s cast a cloud of the good offensive years Brown and Jamal Simpkins are having behind the pitching woes and errors in the field.

Bulloch Academy
    The GISA isn’t quite as far along in their season as the GHSA, but by now Bulloch Academy and their colleagues are well aware of who’s contending and who’s pretending.  
    But Bulloch Academy still isn’t sure where they stand amongst the region 2-3A crowd. BA has tumbled out of the gates in region play — going 0-4 their first time around with their region opponents.
    Frederica and Pinewood combined to mercy rule BA 21-1, while Trinity-Dublin and Edmund Burke each beat BA by one run. BA stands at 4-5, but on a four game losing streak. The upcoming week could prove huge for this struggling club.
    If BA can clean up the errors and continue to see Davis Childs, Brett Thomas and Walker Hennon hit well — BA will look to try and split with Edmund Burke and Trinity-Dublin to get back into playoff contention.
    “We’re a couple of plays from being 2-2 in region, a walk off error and balk made us lose to Edmund Burke and Trinity-Dublin,” said head coach Kyle Chambers. “I pitching has been fine, and I think  the defense will improve as the season goes along.”
 
Statesboro
    Bulloch Academy isn’t the only schools feeling the struggles of region play. Bulloch County’s flagship school Statesboro has hit a rough skid themselves, though it extends further than region play.
    Statesboro has lost now eight games in a row following their 7-1 loss to Wayne County Monday night. Their last win came against Richmond Hill on March 8, and have scored just 19 runs in those eight games.
    The arms of Griffin Davis, Dalton Ross and Austin Kleinlein have been able to carry Statesboro to their 5-13 record thus far, but the offense hasn’t been able to keep up their end of the bargain.
    “We have been very inconsistent throughout the first half of the season,” said head coach Jim Simmons. “However even after everything that’s happened our goals are still within reach.”
    If Statesboro can’t get off the schnide soon, they could be looking at missing the playoffs for the first time since 2012.