ARKADELPHIA — The Bryant 9-year-old All-Stars ousted one Little Rock Junior Deputy All-Star team to stave off elimination but couldn’t conquer a second one as their bid for a State Tournament championship was foiled on Monday, just a win away from the losers bracket final.
The Bryant 9’s, managed by Brad Chism, include John Thomas Allen, Brayden Beenken, Gavyn Benson, Eli Berry, Carter Brown, Cooper Chism, Avery Heidelberg, Preston Howlett, Landon Jackson, E J Keith, Braxton Speer, Aiden Stout and Hudson Thomason.
Bryant knocked out the Junior Deputy (Banks) team, 10-2, to advance to play Junior Deputy (Givens). But they fell behind 3-0 over the first two innings and could never quite catch up in the 7-2 loss.
Bryant 10, JD (Banks) 2
Bryant used eight hits to take advantage of six errors in Monday’s victory. A six-run first put them on the road to advancing. But singles by Allen and Thomason got the inning going. Benson bunted as well, sacrificing his teammates to second and third. Speer came through with the big blow, a triple, to make it 2-0. And, on an errant throw, he scored as well.
With two down, Keith got the inning revved up again with a base hit to left. Heidelberg reached on a two-base error and Jackson beat out an infield hit for an RBI. Heidelberg wound up scoring as well when a late throw to first was mishandled.
Jackson hustled all the way to third on the play and scored two pitches later when Brown singled, maxing out the inning.
Stout, who went the distance on the mound for Bryant, pitched a scoreless home first despite a lead-off single. He wound up with six strikeouts and three walks, allowing two runs, one earned on six hits.
Junior Deputy got on the board in the bottom of the second but, in the top of the third, Bryant plated four runs to blow the game up.
The outburst began with Benson reached on an error and, on a pair of passed balls, making it to third. He scored when Stout’s grounder to second was booted.
Keith was struck by a pitch and Heidelberg singled in two, making it 9-1. With two down, Heidelberg scored on a wild pitch to cap the scoring.
It stayed 10-1 until the bottom of the fourth with Junior Deputy scratched out a run. With the bases loaded, Stout got the final out by inducing a pop up to Keith at first.
In the seventh, Berry earned a one-out walk and reached second on a passed ball only to be stranded.
In turn, Stout worked around a one-out single in the home seventh to close out the win.
JD (Givens) 7, Bryant 2
Errors plagued Bryant in the second game. Of Junior Deputy’s seven runs just one was earned.
JD scored one in the first and two in the second to grab that 3-0 lead. Bryant broke through with a run in the bottom of the third when, with two down, Allen doubled, stole third and scored when Thomason’s pop to second was dropped.
But the Little Rock team answered with two more runs in the fourth to make it 5-1.
Bryant’s fourth began with a single by Speer. With one out, Keith doubled him to third and Heidelberg singled to drive in the run. Jackson was hit by a pitch to load the bases but all three runners were stranded as Junior Deputy wriggled out of the jam.
Two runs in the top of the sixth made it 7-2. The home half of the inning began in promising fashion for Bryant as Stout walked and Keith singled. Stout made it to third on a wild pitch but the Junior Deputy pitcher ended the game there by striking out the side.
Special thanks to Heather Thomason
