HATTIESBURG, Miss. — The Bryant 8-and-under All-Stars complete pool play at the Cal Ripken Baseball 8u Southwest Regional Tournament undefeated with a pair of victories today. Bracket play begins Saturday.
Bryant whipped St. James Parish, 11-1, then drilled East Feliciana, La., 13-0 today. Those wins came on the heels of victories over Orange Grove, Miss., and Southwest Oklahoma on Thursday.
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.
Bryant 11, St. James Parish 1
The Stars limited St. James to one run on three hits. The run came in the top of the fifth after Bryant had built an 11-0 advantage.
Thomason, Jackson, Beenken and Chism each had two hits for Bryant, which broke open a 2-0 game with the maximum of six runs in the bottom of the second.
The first two runs came in the home half of the opening inning. Thomason singled with one out then Speer bounced into a force at second but Keith reached on an error as he fly to center was dropped. Jackson singled and the bases were loaded for Benson. Two runs scored when Benson’s grounder to first drew an errant throw to the St. James Parish pitcher, covering the bag.
The second-inning eruption was ignited by Stout’s double to right. Brown singled and took second on an error as Stout scored. A two-bagger by Beenken chased in Brown to make it 4-0.
Chism’s infield hit was followed by a squeeze bunt from Howlett that got Beenken in. Holland bunted as well and beat it out for an RBI hit. With Holland at second after an errant throw, Allen got a bunt single down and Holland raced home as a wild throw allowed Allen to take second. Thomason’s RBI single made it 8-0.
Bryant upped the margin to 10-0 in the third. Speer doubled, Jackson bunted for a hit then advanced to second before Benson singled in both runs.
Hits by Beenken, Chism and Howlett along with an error on a ball hit by Holland posted the 11th run in the bottom of the fourth.
Bryant 13, East Feliciana 0
Allen drove in four runs and went 3 for 3 to lead the second rout of the day. Speer, Jackson, Stout and Beenken each had two hits.
Bryant took a 2-0 lead in the first. Allen singled but was forced at second on a grounder to short by Thomason. Speer singled and both runners moved up on Keith’s tap to the pitcher. That brought up Jackson who singled to drive in both runs.
Again, the second was golden for the Bryant Stars, who plated six against East Feliciana just as they had against St. James Parish.
On one-out triple by Stout got things revved up. He scored when Brown reached on an error. Beenken singled then Chism sacrificed to put both in scoring position for Howlett who delivered both of them with a double. Holland singled then Allen capped off the inning by drilling a home run to right field.
In the fourth, Stout singled and, with two down, hits by Beenken and Chism produced a run. Howlett reached on an error to load the bases and when Holland’s bouncer back to the mound was misplayed, it was 10-0.
Allen singled in two and the lead was a dozen.
A run in the top of the fifth ended it 13-0. With a six-run maximum per inning, East Feliciana didn’t have enough innings to comeback.
Speer scored the game-ending tally after he, Keith and Jackson stroked consecutive singles.
