The 8-year-old All-Stars of Bryant and Benton squared off in the finals of the district tournament Tuesday night. Benton jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in the first and wound up winning the championship, 10-3.
Both teams will play in the State tourney in Sherwood beginning July 10.Bryant had beaten Benton in the winner’s bracket final but Benton came back out of the loser’s bracket and won a rematch 6-1 to force the winner-take-all championship tonight.
Bryant’s 8-year-olds, coached by Michael Catton with assistance from Madison McEntire and Phillip Dupree, include Logan Catton, Logan Chambers, Jake Cowell, Tristan Day, Cade Dupree, Logan Grant, Cobe Greiner, Sawyer Holt, Ryan Lessenberry, Nathan McFarland, Will McEntire and Garett Nguyen.[more]
After the first batter of the game was retired on a ground ball, the next six batters each hit safely for Benton. The inning was capped off by a three-run smash over the fence in left-center field.
As Bryant batted with a runner on and two outs in the bottom of the first, rain started falling and caused a delay of about 40 minutes. When action resumed, Chambers scored on a single by Dupree to put Bryant on the board.
Bryant's defense shut down the Benton offense for the next three innings, which including the execution of a nice 5-4-3 double play to end the second inning.
In the bottom of the third, Holt and Lessenberry scored to cut the lead to 6-3 but the All-Stars failed to score again despite having the bases loaded with just one out.
Benton then tacked on two runs in the top of the fifth and two more in the sixth to set the final score.
