Photos by Crissy McEntire and Diane Dupree
By Madison McEntire
The Bryant 13-year-old All-Stars jumped to an early 6-0 lead and Jacob Coppock pitched into the sixth inning as Bryant defeated the host team Hamburg 7-3 in the winner’s bracket finals of the 2014 Babe Ruth State Tournament on Monday. Bryant will take on Little Rock at 5 p.m. this evening for the championship. Should Little Rock prevail in the first game, the deciding game will immediately follow.
Team members are Logan Grant, Cade Dupree, Jacob Coppock, Logan Chambers, Logan Catton, Will McEntire, Jacob Shepard, Ryan Lessenberry, Brock Bariola, Coby Greiner, Sawyer Holt, and Hunter Mullings. They are managed by Michael Catton with help from Phillip Dupree and Madison McEntire.
Bryant batted first and got off to a quick start. Coppock walked on a 3-2 pitch, advanced to third as Shepard reached safely when the first baseman fumbled the throw and missed the first base bag on his sacrifice bunt to the pitcher. Chambers dropped down a sac bunt to the third baseline to score Coppock and was called out on a very close play at first as Shepard moved all the way to third.
Grant lined the first pitch he saw to right field for a single to bring in Shepard to make it 2-0. After Grant swiped second, Dupree bounced to the shortstop but his throw to first was missed by the first baseman which allowed Grant to score although he did recover the ball in time to throw out Dupree trying to advance to second. Mullings grounded back to the mound but Bryant led 3-0 before Hamburg’s first at-bat.
Coppock made quick work of Hamburg in the first, getting a high pop to Chambers at shortstop, a swinging strikeout and a comebacker to the mound.
In their second at-bat, the Bryant Stars doubled their lead. Greiner was hit by a pitch and was sacrificed to second by Holt on a bunt that was fielded by the catcher. Lessenberry’s grounder to second was mishandled to put two runners on then Coppock worked a walk on a 10-pitch at-bat to load the bases.
After Shepard struck out for the second out, Chambers slapped a single into left to score Greiner. Grant grounded a pitch back up the middle to plate Lessenberry and Coppock. Hamburg changed pitchers and Dupree drew a walk to reload the bases but Mullings popped up to second to end the threat.
Hamburg cut one run of the deficit in the second. The cleanup hitter led off with single in the gap to right-center. After a strikeout, Coppock issued a walk to put two on and then a wild pitch moved the lead runner up and the trail runner swiped second to place two runners in scoring position. A line drive single to left brought in one run and put runners on the corners. Coppock then picked the runner off third and he was tagged out in a rundown that went from Grant to Lessenberry to Coppock and back to Grant who applied that tag near the plate. Another ground ball back to the mound ended the second with Bryant up 6-1.
Greiner started the third with a walk and was balked to second but Holt popped foul to the catcher when he attempted to bunt him to third. Lessenberry flied to left on a full-count pitch and then Coppock popped to third for the third out.
Hamburg went easily on just seven pitches in the bottom of the third on a pop to short, fly ball to center and grounder to short.
Shepard walked on four pitches but for the second straight inning, Bryant wasted a leadoff walk. Chambers sacrificed him to second but Shepard was thrown out trying to advance all the way to third. After Grant was hit by a pitch and stole second, Dupree ended the inning with a ground ball to second.
Coppock opened the fourth by walking the first two batters on four pitches each but on a 1-1 pitch then got a hard ground ball to shortstop for a 6-4-3 doubleplay as the lead runner moved to third. On a 1-2 pitch, the next batter just missed a homer on a long ball to left that was just foul but then fanned on a 3-2 pitch to end the fourth.
Mullings led off the fifth with a double over the right fielder. He moved to third when Greiner bunted back to the pitcher and was safe when the first baseman came off the bag to take the throw. Holt also bunted to the pitcher and was out at first. Greiner moved up to second but Mullins was forced to hold at third. Lessenberry’s bouncer to short brought in Mullings and moved Greiner to third before Coppock grounded to second. Bryant’s lead was 7-1.
After struggling in the fourth, Coppock need just four pitches in the fifth. Mullings made a nice running catch of a line drive in the left field corner on the first pitch. Then grounders to second and third sent the game to the sixth inning.
Bryant went quickly in the sixth as Shepard bounced to third, Chambers grounded to short and Grant lined to the left fielder on a ball that looked like it would drop for a hit.
After walking the leadoff batter in the sixth, Coppock was relieved on the mound by Chambers. The first batter greeted him with a soft single to left. A grounder to Grant at short accounted for the first out as the runners moved to third and second. An error by Greiner at third brought in a run and put runners on the corners.
On the first pitch to the next batter, Hamburg attempted to steal second, gambling that Bryant would not throw down with a runner on third. But Coppock, who had taken over for Lessenberry behind the plate, fired a strike to nail the runner easily and force the runner at third to hold. A grounder to short ended the inning with Bryant up 7-2.
Bryant went down in order on just four pitches in their its at-bat. Dupree lined a single to center and, on the next pitch, Mullings smashed a hard one-hopper back up the middle where the shortstop snagged it, took two steps to the bag and fired to first for an easy doubleplay. Greiner popped to short for the final out.
Chambers got a foul pop up to Dupree near the dugout on an 0-2 pitch to start the inning. The frustrated batter slammed his helmet in the dugout and then gave it a kick and was thrown out of the game by the umpire.
After a double to deep right and a single to left brought in a run, Greiner cut off a grounder to his left at third and forced the lead runner at second for the second out. After a walk on a full count pitch put two on, Chambers induced a ground ball to Grant at shortstop to end the game with Bryant taking a7-3 victory.
