LAKELAND — When Lanier County decided to bring in a new baseball coach this season, John White jumped at the opportunity to return to the varsity dugout and watch his son, Matt, play at the same time.

“I had a son left and I went, ‘OK, I’ve got two years to retire, he’s got two years left to play,’” the Lanier coach said. “Instead of me only watching half of his games, I’m going to watch them all.”

The Bulldogs are 1-1 after earning their first win — a 6-5 victory — against Hamilton County (Fla.) on Thursday.

White coached Lanier from 2000-2011. He said he stepped away to coach middle school and watch his kids play. Now he returns to familiar territory with a team without a single senior player, but reliable pitchers.

“If we have to be strong somewhere, it still goes back to pitching,” White said.

Walker Bass, a 5-foot-10 right-handed junior, is the Bulldogs’ top starting pitcher. Matt White, a 5-10 junior lefty, is the No. 2 pitcher and a power hitter in the lineup. Trenton Berryhill, a 6-4 sophomore lefty, is third in the rotation.

The Bulldogs are coming to rely on the leadership of two of their most experienced players, Bass and Matt White.

“(Matt) and Walker are kind of in a role where they really have to teach and encourage,” John White said. “They’ve played all these games from (age) 9-16.

“What Matthew does and Walker does is not a real big surprise for us now. We expect them to perform like that.”

The duo had extra weight placed on them after Lanier lost four starters before the season began.

First, the Bulldogs lost their starting shortstop. Two weeks into practice a starting right fielder went down with a knee injury. Another starter was dismissed from the team a week later. Then, the lone senior starter opted to walk away from the game, John White said.

With the number of setbacks his team has already undergone, White said the competitiveness of the players has been the best thing to come out of it all.

“The good part is we’ve competed and I think we’re going to get better,” he said. “We’re so young we’ve got to get better.”

White said the team is “juggling” to plug players into spots to create the best success.

“We’re having to play freshmen that we didn’t even plan on playing two weeks ago,” he said.

The challenge with youth and experimentation comes from the GHSA Class A power rankings. White said the early games played against Florida schools will only count toward Lanier’s overall record and not the power rankings.

“It’s life in Class A, brother,” he said.

Lanier loaded up its schedule with top competition to have a better shot in the power rankings. The schedule includes a pair of meetings with the Charlton County Indians, who won back-to-back Class A Public state championships in 2013 and 2014. The Indians are also the defending Region 2-1A champions, winning the title for three consecutive seasons.

The Bulldogs travel to Folkston for their first meeting of the season with Charlton on Tuesday.