By Madison McEntire
LONOKE — The Sylvan Hills Bears scored first but the Bryant 14-year-old All-Star team plated the next 14 runs and romped to an easy 14-2 win in the first game of the 2014 Babe Ruth State tournament at Lonoke on Friday, July 10. Jacob Coppock pitched six strong inning and hit an inside-the-park home run. Next up for the All-Stars is a game against Stuttgart on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
The team members are Coppock, Logan Grant, Logan Chambers, Cade Dupree, Coby Greiner, Ryan Taylor, Brock Bariola, Logan Catton, Will McEntire, Sawyer Holt, Ryan Lessenberry, Cameron Tipton, Elijah King and Clift Chaffin. They are managed by Michael Catton with help from assistant coaches Phillip Dupree and Madison McEntire.
Coppock led off the game with a groundout to first on the game’s first pitch. Chambers reached on an error by the third baseman and Grant was hit by a pitch but Bryant failed to score when Dupree forced Chambers at third and Taylor grounded to third.
In the bottom of the first, the Bears scored to take a 1-0 lead. With one out, Taylor dove in center field but could not come up with a line drive that fell for a hit. After an errant pickoff throw bounced off the runner’s helmet and allowed him to take second, he scored on a fly ball that fell just inside the right field line. The following batter flied to Bariola in right who relayed to Grant who fired to Dupree to double off the runner from first to end the inning.
Bryant tied the score in the second. Bariola and Catton laced back-to-back singles down the line in left with one out. An error by the second baseman allowed Holt to reach and load the bases. Tipton, hitting for Lessenberry, ripped a single to center to score Bariola. Coppock then ripped a line drive to the third baseman who raced for the bag and doubled Catton off third on a controversial call to end the inning.
In the bottom of the frame, the Bears went in order with each out coming on a grounder to Grant at shortstop.
After Chambers lined out to left, Grant doubled to left and went to third when the ball got by the outfielder. Dupree brought him in with a safety squeeze to give Bryant the lead. Taylor singled to right but was then picked off first and tagged out in a rundown to end the inning.
Coppock set the Bears down in order in the bottom of the third when he struck out the first and third batters and got a line drive to right.
In the fourth, Bryant scored four to make the lead 6-1. After Greiner grounded out, Bariola singled to center. Catton was then retired on high chopper that almost got over the head of the third baseman, with Bariola moving to second on the play. Holt was hit by a pitch and, after the runners moved up ion a wild pitch, Lessenberry punched an 0-2 pitch on the ground into right field to bring them both home. Coppock stepped in and launched a drive to the left field fence and rounded the bases, beating the throw to the plate when the cutoff throw was mishandled. Chambers bounced out to second for the third out.
Grant made a nice play in the hole and Dupree made the scoop on the long throw for the first out of the fourth. Dupree then fielded a grounder at first and flipped to Coppock covering for the second out. Following a walk, Coppock got a swinging strikeout to end the inning.
Grant started the fifth with an infield single to the shortstop, went to second on a balk and to third on Dupree’s grounder to the shortstop. Taylor’s sac fly to center made the score 7-1 before Greiner popped to the pitcher to send the game to the bottom of the fifth.
The Bears put their first two on in the bottom of the fifth. After Greiner dove and snagged a grounder at third but dropped the ball taking it from his glove, the next batter lined a single to right. Coppock recorded a swinging strikeout followed by an infield-fly rule pop to second and a foul pop to Dupree at first to end the threat.
Bryant failed to score in the sixth. Bariola led off and reached first when the second baseman mishandled his ground ball. Catton sacrificed him to second and Holt’s grounder advanced him to third but he was stranded when Lessenberry bounced out to third.
In his final inning on the hill, Coppock allowed a leadoff double on a liner over Bariola in right but then got a called strikeout and grounder back to the mound and a swinging strikeout to end the inning.
Bryant blew the game open in their final at-bat. Thirteen players came to the plate and scored seven runs against three Bears pitchers despite just four hits. They got hits from Grant on a pop that the shortstop lost in the sun, an infield single to the pitcher by Dupree, a grounder in the hole by Bariola that went off the first baseman’s glove and an infield single to first by Coppock. Sylvan Hills pitchers walked four batters, uncorked two wild pitches and their defense committed two errors. When the inning finally ended the score was 14-1.
Catton took over on the mound for the final inning. After giving up a leadoff walk and single to center, he got a swinging strikeout and a pop to Grant at shortstop for two quick outs. A single to left brought in the Bears’ final run before a grounder to short ended the game.
