Bryant Junior Sox edged by Hot Springs Village, 4-3

By Rob Patrick

HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — Though it cost them a couple of times, the Hot Springs Village Knights' aggressive base-running was a difference maker on Monday, June 15, in a 4-3 win over the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team.

It helped them score their first run and their last. With the game tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the eighth of the nine-inning game, the Knights' Will King hit a hard grounder past Bryant shortstop Tyler Gattin and into left center where left fielder Brodie Nixon couldn't come up with it cleanly. King wound up at second.

Michael Mendez sacrificed him to third. Derek McDormand followed with a tap in front of the mound. Initially, King held at third as Bryant pitcher Matt Neal fielded the ball. He broke for home when Neal made his throw to first baseman Caleb Milam. Seeing King break, Milam came off the bag to get to the ball sooner and fired to catcher Dylan Pritchett for the out.

While the aggressiveness didn't pay off there, McDormand was rounding second and heading to third. He beat Pritchett's throw there, replacing King at third with two down.

A pitch later, Matt Harper singled up the middle to bring McDormand home with the tiebreaking run.[more]

Neal surrendered another single to Mark Reyes but got T.C. French to ground out to Tyler Brown at second to keep it 4-3.

In the ninth, Neal led off and the Sox were given a chance when he grounded to King at short and reached on a wild throw. Gattin got ahead in the count 3-0 but Knights' right-hander Ryan Herron came back to retire him on a third-strike foul bunt. Evan Jobe bounced into a force at second then Nixon flew out to shallow left to end the game.

Herron and Neal both went the distance. Herron gave up nine hits but walked just one and struck out 10. Neal only gave up six hits while walking three and fanning seven. Of all the runs scored only one for the Sox and one for the Knights was earned. 

Hot Springs Village, a AA team (small town 19-and-under) snapped a scoreless tie in the third. Herron walked to lead off the inning and appeared to be out when he tried to steal on a laser throw from Pritchett but Herron knocked the ball out of the glove of Brown and got in safely. Neal struck out Trey Nevels then Kyle Heller, on a run and bunt, got the ball down. Neal fielded and threw to first as Herron raced around third and headed home. Milam got the out and returned the throw to Pritchett, but Herron, who had rounded third wide enough to run around the on-deck batter and the homeplate umpire, snuck a hand in from behind the plate, avoiding Pritchett's tag for the game's first run.

King followed with a triple down the line in left. He scored on a passed ball to make it 2-0.

The Sox countered with all three of their runs in the top of the fourth. Pritchett, who was 2-for-3 at the plate, drew a lead-off walk and, an out later, Austin Johnson, who also had two hits, cracked a double to the gap in left center. With runners at second and third, Milam drove a liner to center for what figured to be a sacrifice fly. But the ball was dropped by Garrett Mendez and Pritchett scored. Milam hustled to second as Johnson reached third but drew a throw.

Brown fouled off a pair of two-strike pitches from Herron then pulled a single through the hole into left that chased both Johnson and Milam around. Brown took second on the throw to the plate and when the ball hit Milam and ricocheted toward the Bryant dugout, Brown headed toward third. But Harper, the catcher, chased the ball down and fired to third in time to nail Brown for the second out of the inning.

Neal followed with a shot to the right side but it was speared by Heller at second to end the inning.

The Sox, however, had a 3-2 lead.

Neal worked a 1-2-3 fourth but Herron did the same in the top of the fifth to the Sox.

In the home fifth, Herron again walked and tried to steal. This time, Brown held on and applied the tag to retire him. Neal struck out Nevels again and came within a strike of ending the inning. But, after fouling off a 1-2 pitch, Heller hit a bouncer to the right side that Brown ranged far to his left to grab with a dive. But his throw to first was late and off-target enough to pull Milam off the bag. On the next pitch, King plugged the gap in left-center for a double. Heller raced all the way home, beating a short-hop relay to the plate to tie the game.

The Sox threatened to regain the advantage in the top of the sixth. Landon Pickett slapped a one-out single to right. Johnson followed with a shot toward third that was snared by Reyes, a rare left-handed third sacker. Had Reyes been right handed, it's unlikely he could've made a back-handed grab of the liner but, as a lefty, he just reached up with his glove hand and caught it.

That proved even bigger when Milam and Brown followed with singles to load the bases. But Herron fanned Neal to get off the hook with the game still deadlocked.

Neal worked around a one-out single by Harper in the bottom of the inning then the pitchers took turns retiring the side in order in the seventh.

In the top of the eighth, Pritchett drove a single up the middle but he was still at first with two down. Milam reached on an error then Brown smacked a liner to left that was caught to end the inning, setting up the decisive home eighth.

The game was far more normal than the Black Sox' last two. After beating Benton 26-6, they'd absorbed a 23-0 loss to Texarkana in a game interrupted by a thunderstorm.

Now 9-6, they'll return to action at home on Tuesday against Pine Bluff National Bank before traveling to Jacksonville on Wednesday and Conway Christian on Thursday.

 

PB—Pritchett.