BAY CITY, Texas — A three-run uprising in the top of the sixth helped break up a tight game as the[more] Bryant 13-year-old All-Stars held off the host Bay City, Texas to advance to the championship round of the 2012 Babe Ruth League Southwest Regional Tournament. A win on Monday at 7 p.m., will make Bryant the Regional champion and qualify the team for the Babe Ruth World Series for 13-year-old teams, which will be held in Kitsap County, Wash., starting Aug. 15.
Bryant will be facing the survivor of the losers bracket final at 4 p.m. on Monday with Bay City taking on a team to be determined by the late game on Sunday night.
As the lone unbeaten team in the tournament, Bryant, with a loss on Monday, would still have a shot in a winner-take-all final on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
The Bryant team is managed by Jerry East with assistance from Rick Brown and Randy Kelly. The team includes Logan Allen, Drew Brown, Cameron Coleman, Jake East, Jeffery Hastings, Dylan Hurt, Austin Kelly, Hayden Knowles, Garrett Misenheimer, Aaron Orender, Kyle Sahr, Alex Shurtleff, Diego Vargas.
East and Misenheimer combined to limit Bay City to single runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Over the first five frames, East struck out eight and walked no one. He allowed three of the runs on eight hits. Misenheimer worked the last two frames, walking three, fanning three and not allowing a hit.
Allen and Misenheimer led Bryant with three hits apiece. Orender and Kelly each had two.
Bryant took the lead with two runs in the top of the second. Misenheimer singled and scored on a long double to center by Kelly. With two down, Allen singled and he and Misenheimer worked a double steal for the second run.
Bay City got on the board in the bottom of the third with a single, a force out, a double and a base hit. A second run was cut down at the plate to end the inning.
Another two runs in the top of the fourth upped Bryant’s lead to 4-1. Orender opened the inning with a double and stole third. Allen singled him in then swiped second to get in position to score on a base hit by East.
Bay City trimmed a run off the margin in the bottom of the inning utilizing a single, a groundout and another base hit, making it 4-2. But Bryant got that run back in the top of the fifth when, with two down, Misenheimer singled, Kelly walked and Orender stroked a single to center to drive in the run.
A run in the bottom of the fifth kept Bay City alive. After East fanned the first two batters in the inning, a single, a stolen base and another hit put runners at first and third. A wild pitch allowed the run to score.
This time, Bryant didn’t just continue to trade runs, however. The game-breaking sixth began with a single to center by Allen and an RBI triple by Coleman. With one out, Hurt squeezed in the run to make it 7-3.
The inning continued when Shurtleff was struck by a pitch and stole second. Misenheimer capped things off with an RBI single.
Taking advantage of a pair of walks and a hit batsman, Bay City was able to trim one run off the margin on a force out. But Misenheimer struck out the Texas team’s lead-off hitter to leave runners standing at first and third.
He worked around a two-out walk in the seventh and finished the game off with another strikeout.
