One would be hard pressed to find a topic much hotter than the sweltering August heat that is facing our region at this time.  As local prep squads continue to prepare for their Friday night lights football debut and the welcome of fall football, the Bryan County High school softball team is in the midst of a hot streak of its own.  
The Lady Skins are off to an 8-0, 2-0 start behind the pitching of Junior, Tiffany Howard, who is a perfect 7-0 on the mound. Makayla Peny is (1-0) from the mound.  
Taking a 4-0 record into their first region game on Aug. 17 against a visiting Calvary team, the Bryan ladies made easy work of the Lady 'Cavs in a 7-0 win.
Howard fanned 8 batters and allowed only 2 hits in the winning effort. Bridget Bacon led the seven-hit offense of Bryan County with a 2 for 3 performance at the plate and got some first inning help when Jerri Hines launched her second home run of the early season over the left field fence to put the undefeated 'Skins up 2-0.
 On Thursday, Aug. 19, the 'Lady Skins traveled to Metter to pick up another win as Howard mowed down 11 Metter batters and Bryan County came home a 11-3 winner. Bacon again led the way with another 2 for 3 offensive performance.
  Bryan County traveled back to Waycross on the weekend to complete a weather delayed Softball in the Swamp tourney where Lady Skins beat Brantley County 3-0 and Bacon County 6-4 to claim the tourney title. Sierra Newman had the hot bat during the weekend stint as she went 1 for 3 and 2 for 3 at the plate and Howard helped her own cause with a 2 for 3 plate performance against Bacon County to combine with her 10 strikeouts from the mound.
 The Bryan County squad has put up some hot offensive numbers, producing 55 runs while holding their opponents to just 19 runs.
Bryan County coach Al Butler is proud of his girls so far.
"The girls are looking better as we start to hit the meat of our schedule. We have been working really hard on the mental and physical aspects of the game while trying to battle the heat as well," Butler said. "We continue to work on the short game offensively and feel that once we get conditioned as a team and the heat subsides that all these components will fall into place and that we will be able to compete with that we will be able to compete with anyone in the state."
The 'Lady Skins hosted another region foe on Tuesday with Claxton in town, and will travel to Savannah Christian on Thursday for more region action. 
And believe it or not, the softball heat gets turned up a notch on Friday when Bryan County travels to Warner Robins for weekend games against an undefeated First Presbyterian team, a battle with AAA state champs Columbus and a tangle with state-runner up and undefeated Houston County. "We will know a lot more about our team after our weekend in Warne Robins," Butler said.

FOOTBALL
New head coach, Mark Wilson had his new Bryan County squad warmed up for their nearby county rival scrimmage game against Southeast Bulloch on Aug. 20, but the heat was once again a major factor. Severe lightning lingered in the area long enough to cancel the pre-season scrimmage with Southeast Bulloch ahead 14-3 with just one quarter of play completed. The gridiron Redskins will continue their regular season preparation in anticipation of their trip to Long County, where they will tangle with the 'Blue Tide' on Friday night.  The remaining Redskins schedule is as follows: 9/3 vs Jenkins County (Home). 9/10 at Montgomery County. 9/24 at Glassock County. 10/1 vs SCD (Home). 10/8 at Metter. 10/15 at Calvary. 10/22 vs Claxton (Home). 10/29 vs SCPS (Home).

CROSS-COUNTRY
Cross-country runners continue their season preparation under Coach Cindy Bennett and we will chase down their season progress for next weeks issue.

Traywick covers BCHS sports for the Bryan County News.