Black Sox split first two pool games at UALR 16U tourney
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LITTLE ROCK — Late inning surges proved decisive in both games that the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team played in pool play in the UALR 16-and-under Showcase Tournament on Friday. It worked against the Sox in the first game but for them in the second.
The Extra Innings Spartans of Little Rock scored two runs in the top of the seventh to snap a 3-3 tie and held on for a 5-3 win in game one. In game two, the Sox snapped a 3-3 tie with a three-run sixth and held on for a 7-5 victory over the White Brothers Astros of Fordland, Mo.
Pool play was set to continue on Saturday morning at 10 at Conway High School where they’ll take on the Southside Prospects 16 of St. Louis. On Sunday at 1:30 p.m., Bryant plays Ozark Baseball Club of Ozark, Mo., at UCA in Conway.
Bryant 7, White Brothers Astros 5
The Sox accumulated 13 hits including a 3-for-3 day for Coby Greiner. Logan Chambers, Logan Catton, Cade Dupree and Myers Buck each had two hits.
Buck picked up the win with six innings of work on the mound. Will McEntire closed it out.
The game-breaking three-run sixth began with Catton getting plunked by a pitch. Buck got a bunt down but the Astros were able to get a force on Catton at second. Konnor Clontz waited out a four-pitch walk, however, to get the potential go-ahead run to second.
Greiner fulfilled that potential when he ripped a double to center. Two scored on Chambers’ two-bagger, making it 6-3.
Buck worked around a pair of two-out singles and an error to maintain that advantage in the home sixth.
In the top of the seventh, the Sox added what turned out to be an important insurance run. Brandon Hoover beat out an infield hit and took second when Grayson Prince bounced out to first. Sawyer Holt came in as a pinch-runner for Hoover and raced home on Catton’s single to left.
The Astros rallied in the bottom of the seventh. A pair of walks and a two-run hit cut the margin to 7-5 but McEntire induced a grounder to Clontz at short for the game-ending out.
The Sox led early. In the first, Greiner beat out an infield single and advanced on a late, errant throw to first. He then stole third and scored on Chambers’ grounder to short.
Buck pitched around a one-out single and walk in the bottom of the inning and Bryant made it 2-0 in the top of the second on a double by Prince, a bunt single by Catton and a force out on Buck’s bouncer to short. Dupree singled but that’s all the Sox could get.
The Astros surged in the bottom of the third, taking the lead 3-2. Bryant tied it in the fifth. Again, Greiner was the instigator. He walked then raced all the way to third on Chambers’ swinging bunt that drew the third baseman in, leaving the third-base bag uncovered. Griener scored on a passed ball as Jacob Wright was drawing a walk.
That set up the big sixth for Bryant.
Extra Innings 5, Bryant 3
The Sox tied the game in the bottom of the sixth only to have the Spartans score twice in the top of the seventh. Greiner walked to lead off the home seventh but was stranded.
Bryant took a 2-0 lead in the first. Greiner singled to left, took second on a passed ball and, after Chambers and Wright each walked to load the bases, Hoover came through with a sacrifice fly. Chambers and Wright then worked a double steal to get the second run.
A run in the second and another in the third allowed the Spartans to tied it. It stayed even until the fifth when they scored again to take the lead. In the sixth, Prince doubled and scored on a single by Holt to knot it up again.
