Bryant AA earns win behind strong pitching
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CABOT — A quintet of pitchers combined to limit Cabot Centennial Bank to one unearned run on four hits as the Bryant Black Sox AA American Legion team earned its first victory of the season on Tuesday night at the Cabot Sports Complex.
Joey Cates, Drew Brown, Hunter Oglesby and C.J. Wallace each threw two innings and Myers Buck closed out the 2-1 victory.
The Sox improved to 1-3 on the season going into the Peoples Bank Wood Bat Classic in Sheridan this weekend. Bryant opens pool play on Friday at 8 p.m., against Jacksonville. On Saturday, the Sox continue with games against Monticello at 5:30 and Sylvan Hills at 8.
The Sox took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. With one out, Oglesby ripped a double. Daniel Darbonne reached on an error that got Oglesby to third then Christian Harp singled for the RBI.
Cates pitched around a pair of hit batsmen in the bottom of the first then worked a 1-2-3 second. In the third, Brown pitched around a pair of walks, forcing Cabot to strand runners at the corners.
Bryant tacked on a run in the top of the fourth when, with one out, Harp walked Brown singled and, with two down, Jacob Coppock beat out a bunt hit to load the bases. When Wallace worked a walk, it forced in Harp to make it 2-0.
Three errors in the bottom of the fourth produced Cabot’s run before Oglesby ended the threat with a lead intact. He would pitched out of a bases-loaded one-out jam in the fifth, striking out the side along the way.
Though Darbonne singled in the fifth and Coppock lashed his second hit of the game in the sixth, the Sox were unable to add to the lead.
Wallace surrendered a single to lead off the sixth but retired the next three to preserve the advantage. Buck worked around a one-out single in the seventh, finishing the game with a strikeout to earn a save. Oglesby was credited with the win and Wallace got a hold.
