HATTIESBURG, Miss. — The Bryant 8-year-old All-Stars erupted for six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to break open a 3-3 tussle with the Orange Grove, Miss., Americans today in the opening game of pool play of the Cal Ripken Baseball Regional Tournament.
Bryant is set to play again this evening at 7:15 after opening ceremonies for the tournament. They’ll take on Southeast Oklahoma.
On Friday, they’re set to play St. James Parish, La., at 11:30 a.m., then East Felicana, La., at 2:30 p.m.
The Bryant All-Stars are managed by Brad Chism with assistance from Jeff Jackson, Brad Benson. Team members are John Thomas Allen, Brayden Beenken, Gavyn Benson, Carter Brown, Cooper Chism, Avery Heidelberg, Drake Holland, Preston Howlett, Landon Jackson, E.J. Keith, Braxton Speer, Aiden Stout and Hudson Thomason.
Allen, Keith and Speer each had two hits in the opening win. Heidelberg, Jackson and Allen all pitched.
The game-breaking outburst started with a single by Heidelberg and, after Stout reached on an error, Brown beat out an infield hit to load the bases. When Beenken’s grounder to short was booted, Heidelberg scored the tiebreaker.
Chism singled in Stout and, with one out, Holland hit a grounder back to the mound resulting in a force at the plate. So there were two down when Allen singled in a run and, on a pair of errant throws, Chism and Holland scampered home. Thomason made it a max-out inning with an RBI single, bringing in Allen.
Allen tossed a 1-2-3 top of the sixth to close out the victory.
The Bryant Stars had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first after Heidelberg, aided by his defense, worked out of a two-on, none-out jam in the top half. Allen led off the bottom of the frame with a single but was out on Thomason’s grounder to third. But a throwing error allowed Thomason to keep on to second.
Keith’s single to right drove him home. Speer singled but Bryant was unable to add on.
And Orange Grove tied it in the top of the second on a pair of singles and an error. In the third, the Americans scored again, taking a 2-1 lead.
Bryant got that tally back in the bottom of the third when Beenken drilled a double to right, took third on an error and scored on Howlett’s groundout.
Both teams scored again in the fourth. A pair of errors contributed to Orange Grove’s run. In the bottom half, an error allowed Allen to reach. Thomason sacrificed him to second and Keight drilled an RBI double to center.
Jackson worked around an error to start the top of the fifth with the next two batters bouncing into force plays. He then struck out the next batter to end the inning and set up the decisive home fifth.
