PINE BLUFF — The White Hall All-Stars won its 15-year-old District Tournament, beating out, among others, the Bryant All-Stars.
But, on Sunday, at the State Tournament at Taylor Field, Bryant got some revenge by knocking White Hall into the losers bracket with a 9-2 win.
With four runs in the first and four more in the fourth, Bryant built up an 9-0 lead and right-hander Dylan Cross pitched shut-out ball through five innings on his way to the complete-game victory. He struck out nine in the seven innings.
Bryant’s 15-year-olds, coached by Wayne Taylor, include Seth Alkire, Jared Archer, Cross, Ozzie Hurt, Tyler Jamison, Luke McConnell, Quinton Motto, Trevor Paige, Josh Pultro, Alex Rowlan, Stoney Stephens, Jordan Taylor and Matthew Welch.[more]
The opening salvo began after Cross worked around a pair of lead-off walks in the top of the inning. Jamison walked to start the home half, moving up on Hurt’s grounder to third. After moving to third on a passed ball, Jamison scored on a single to center by Taylor.
Walks to Cross and Motto followed, loading the bases for Pultro who bounced one up the middle that was flagged down on a dive by the shortstop only to have his toss to second pull the second baseman off the bag as Taylor scored to make it 2-0.
With two down, Alkire shot a double to left driving in two more.
In the second, a walk, a hit batsman and a bloop single by Dennis Robertson loaded the bases for White Hall but Cross ended the threat with a strikeout.
It stayed 4-0 until the fourth when Bryant doubled the lead. With one out Archer walked and Jamison singled sharply to left. With two down, Taylor was hit by a pitch to load the bases. RBI walks were then issued to Cross and Motto before Pultro capped the inning with a double to deep center.
White Hall made some noise in the fifth with a walk to Robertson, a single by Dylan James that just evaded the glove of the diving attempt at a catch by Pultro in left. After a passed ball put runners at second and third, Cross picked off Robertson. He ended the inning with a strikeout and a grounder to Taylor at short.
Bryant tacked on a run in the bottom of the fifth when Paige drew a walk. Welch bunted into a force at second. Archer bunted as well and his ricocheted off the third baseman’s foot and into foul territory. After Jamison reached on a grounder to short in which the White Hall defender looked to third for a force only to find no one covering. That loaded the bags for Hurt, who got down a squeeze bunt to make it 9-0.
A double by Pierce Sloan and a pair of wild pitches allowed White Hall to break the goose egg on the scoreboard. With two down, a single by Chris Bryan and a double by Offut had White Hall with runners in scoring position again only to have Cross strike out Robertson to end the inning.
It stayed 9-1 until the top of the seventh when a double, a walk and a single had White Hall in business again but Cross got Kelsey to pop up to Alkire at third to close out the win.
