Bryant Juniors club 19 hits in 16-6 win at Conway Christian
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
By Rob Patrick
CONWAY — The Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team took another step in a bid to put together a stretch run that could have them on a roll heading into the post-season.
After a three-game slump that had the Sox dragging, they captured their second run-rule win in a row on Thursday, slugging their way to a 16-6 victory over Conway NBMC at Victory Field on the campus of Conway Christian school.
Bryant hammered out a whopping 19 hits in six innings including five by Dylan Pritchett and four by Brodie Nixon, scoring in every inning including seven times in the top of the sixth to provide the final margin after the contest had been tied 6-6. Nine of the 10 players that got into the game hit safely for the Sox who made a winner of Blake Davidson, making his return to action after being out for over three weeks with a muscle pull in his right hip.
In his first appearance on the mound since May 31, Davidson worked four innings, fanned five and walked just one while surrendering all six of Conway’s runs including a grand slam in the third by Tyler Spangler that tied the game 5-5. Caleb Milam, coming off his least successful outing of the campaign, regained his form with two innings of hitless relief, retiring six of the seven batters he faced with the lone baserunner getting aboard on an error.[more]
“We had a long talk after our last loss,” recounted Sox manager Brad Chism, referring to the 16-1 loss to Pine Bluff National Bank on Tuesday June 16. “We talked about what’s inside — heart — and that’s what we need to start playing with. We’ve had kids come out and just kind of go through the motions. They’re tired, worn out. We’ve got a lot of guys that are used to playing Babe Ruth All-Stars at this point in the summer and they’d be practicing right now while we’re still going strong at it and have another week left before District. We can’t get down right now. We’ve got to start coming together and being real focused, getting ready for the District tournament.”
Now 11-7, the Sox have four more playing dates before the District commences in Sheridan on July 3. They’re set to host Little Rock Post 1 Blue Junior on Saturday evening.
The 16-6 win comes on the heels of a 10-0 win over Jacksonville on Wednesday.
“We’ve talked a lot about having an approach — a plan — at the plate and it looks like they’re using it,” Chism said of his hitters. “We’ve been going up there just looking to put the ball in play. We’ve faced decent pitching but not great pitching and we’ve had people chasing pitches. So, what we’ve tried to tell them is start looking for that first-pitch fastball with pitchers trying to get ahead. We want to look for a first-pitch strike and not chase anything out of the zone. We’ve had batters falling behind by chasing things out of the zone and then we’re fighting the rest of the time. Now, we’re getting on top and people are bringing pitches down the middle, over the plate, and we’re doing something with it.”
The Sox had four hits in the very first inning, which was a sign of things to come, but because of some miscommunication on the bases, frustratingly only got one run. Chris Joiner was hit by a pitch then Evan Jobe singled. Pritchett’s first hit was a shot to right. With nobody out, third base coach Dustin Tinkler held Joiner up at third but Pritchett was anticipating an attempt to score and headed to second before noticing that Jobe was there. He got caught in a rundown and Joiner took off for the plate. A throw home was in time, however, then a throw to first resulted in Pritchett being called out for interfering with Spangler, the Conway first baseman, in his attempt to get to the ball.
Jobe, meanwhile, sprinted to third. He held there as Landon Pickett beat out a topper down the third base line then Caleb Milam picked up his teammates with an RBI single up the middle to get a run out of the inning.
Conway answered in the second on an infield hit by Chris Rega and a long double by Kirby Powell.
Nixon cracked his first hit to start the second. He moved up a base on a wild pitch from Conway starter Matt Lowe then scored on a one-out single to center by Davidson. With two down, Jobe worked a walk and Pritchett lined one off the outstretched glove of shortstop Jackson Hogue for an RBI single making it 3-1.
Davidson struck out the side in the bottom of the inning and the Sox went back to work at the plate. Milam cracked a double to start the third. An out later, Nixon beat out an infield hit. When Nixon then stole second, Powell, the Conway catcher, tried to make a throw that appeared to be going through only to have Lowe catch it in an attempt to nab the runner at third wandering off the base. But the throw was too high and wide for Lowe who got a glove on it. Milam was able to score and when the return throw home was off the mark, Nixon advanced to third. He scored moments later on a grounder to short by Matt Neal to make it 5-1.
The first two Conway batters were retired by the Sox in the bottom of the inning but Rega and Powell singled to bring up clean-up hitter Wade Beck. He and Davidson battled to a 3-2 count when the batter lifted a foul pop down the first base line. Neal, playing first, lost track of the pop and, despite the hustle and a diving attempt by second baseman Tyler Brown, the ball fell to the ground. Beck fouled off another pitch then drew a walk to load the bases for Spangler who blasted the next pitch down the left-field line for the slam.
The game didn’t stay tied long. After Davidson struck out Hunter Treece, the Sox regained the advantage in the top of the fourth. Jobe and Pritchett singled then moved to second and third on a wild pitch. Pickett drew a walk and when ball four got past Powell, Jobe scrambled home to make it 6-5.
In the home fourth, Lance Nail was hit by a pitch to bring up Hogue who was robbed of a hit on a pop to shallow left by Pritchett who roamed into the outfield from shortstop to make a sprawling catch. Davidson fanned Ashton Robinson but with Nail running, Lowe lashed an RBI double to right-center to knot it back up.
Nixon rattled a double off the left-field wall to start the top of the fifth. After Reese O’Rourke (just back from injury) pinned the left-fielder to the wall with a long drive for an out, Davidson singled in the run that put the Sox back on top for good.
Joiner bounced into a force at second then stole a base. He scored when Jobe’s grounder to third drew a wild throw to first. With Jobe at second, Pritchett ripped a single up the middle to chase him home, making it 9-6.
Milam gave up a couple of long flies to Jobe in right but worked a 1-2-3 home fifth and the Sox broke it open in the sixth.
A walk to Milam got things started against Hogue, who came on in relief of Lowe. Brown was hit by a pitch and Nixon singled to fill the bags. O’Rourke, after getting nothing for his deep drive to left, got some retribution when his roller down the third base line went for an RBI single.
Davidson walked to force in Brown and Hogue was pulled in favor of Nail. Joiner greeted the new hurler with a liner to right-center for a two-run single, making it 13-6. Nail got Jobe to ground into a force at third but when Beck tried to get the doubleplay to end the inning, his throw to first was too high. Joiner sprinted to third and Jobe followed to second then both came home on a double to right-center by Pritchett.
After Pickett drew a walk, Brown put the Sox in position for the run-rule win with a two-out RBI single.
Treece reached on an error to start the bottom of the sixth but Milam struck out the next two and got Robinson to bounce to Nixon at third for the final out.
BRYANT 16, CONWAY NBMC 6
Black Sox ab r h bi Conway ab r h bi
Joiner, cf 4 2 1 2 Lowe, p-ss-2b 3 0 1 1
Jobe, rf 4 4 2 0 Rega, cf 3 2 2 0
Pritchett, ss 5 1 5 4 Powell, c 3 1 2 1
Pickett, c 3 0 1 0 Beck, 3b 2 1 0 0
Milam, lf-p 4 2 2 1 Spangler, 1b 3 2 1 4
Brown, 2b 4 1 1 1 Treece, lf 3 0 0 0
Nixon, 3b 5 3 4 0 Nail, 2b-p 2 0 0 0
Neal, 1b 2 0 0 1 Hogue, ss-p 3 0 0 0
O’Rourke, lf 2 1 1 1 Robinson, rf 3 0 0 0
Davidson, p-1b 3 1 2 3
Totals 36 16 19 13 Totals 25 6 6 6
BRYANT 122 137 — 16
Conway 104 100 — 6
E—Powell, Nail, Beck, Pritchett. DP—Conway 1. LOB—Bryant 9, Conway 3. 2B—Powell, Milam, Lowe, Nixon, Pritchett. HR—Spangler. SB—Nixon, Joiner.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Bryant
Davidson (W) 4 6 6 6 6 5
Milam (S) 2 0 0 0 0 2
HBP—Joiner (by Lowe), Brown (by Hogue), Nail (by Davidson). WP—Lowe 2, Nail, Milam. PB—Powell.
