All evening long, the Bryant Everett Black Sox Junior American Legion team were just one big hit away from taking control of their 2015 season debut against Maumelle on Monday night at Bryant High School field.
But the big hit evaded them as Maumelle hurlers Shelby Quiggins and Jordan Graham kept wriggling off the hook. The Sox wound up stranding 10 base-runners including six in scoring position.
In fact, it was a pair of clutch two-out RBI singles in the top of the fifth inning that lifted Maumelle to a 3-2 win after they came into the frame trailing 2-1.
Christian Harp accounted for two of Bryant’s five hits while Nick Grimsley had two of Maumelle’s five.
Quiggins and Sox starter Boston Heil dueled over the first two scoreless frames. Heil struck out the side around a one-out double by Grimsley in the first then worked a 1-2-3 second with the help of a nice defensive play from second sacker Scott Schmidt.
Meanwhile, Quiggins pitched around two-out walks to Brandon Hoover and Preston Kyzer in the first and retired the side in the second despite plunking Schmidt with a pitch after two were down.
In the third, Maumelle’s Camron Johnson reached second on an error. He moved to third on a grounder to short. Heil and the Sox appeared to be out of the inning when Grimsley hit a roller to the right side but a misconnect between Hoover, the first baseman, and Heil allowed Grimsley to reach and Johnson to score the game’s first run.
Heil, who struck out six in 4 1/3 innings, fanned Caleb Disterdick to keep it 1-0.
And his teammates erased the deficit in the bottom of the inning. Grayson Prince beat out an infield hit and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Matthew Sandidge walked. Hoover, in an attempt to sacrifice, got a bunt down but Grimsley came in aggressively from first, fielded the ball and fired to third in time for a force.
Kyzer followed with a roller to the right side. Johnson made a nice play on the ball but his throw to the shortstop in an attempt to get a force out got by and into shallow left field. Sandidge hustled home to make it 1-1.
An out later, it was Quiggins that appeared to be out of the inning when Ethan Thompson hit a grounder toward first. But the ball was misplayed and Hoover scored, giving Bryant the lead. Though the bases were still loaded, that was all the Sox could manage as Quiggins induced a fly to right to end the uprising.
Heil followed up with another 1-2-3 frame and the Sox threatened again in the bottom of the fourth. Alex Thompson opened the inning with a single and courtesy runner C.J. Wallace was sacrificed to second by Prince. Sandidge then reached on an error allowing Wallace to go to third.
Bryant tried to squeeze in the run before Hoover got down in the count 1-2. With Sandidge on the move, Hoover fanned and Maumelle catcher Kemp Truslow threw out Sandidge to end the inning.
Heil retired the first batter in the top of the fifth but Brody Ammons was hit by a pitch and, after he stole second, Johnson came through with an RBI single to tie it. A late throw to the plate missed the cut-off man and Johnson went to second.
Ty Medford relieved Heil at that point and, after a wild pitch allowed Johnson to take third, J.D. Bengston hit a hard grounder to the left side. Harp, playing third, made a dive at the ball and got a glove on it. But it only slowed it down. Bengsten wound up with an RBI single to make it 3-2.
Medford picked off Bengsten for the second out of the inning and, after Grimsley singled, he struck out Disterdick to end the inning.
With Graham on to pitch for Maumelle, Myers Buck reached safely on a two-out error then sprinted to second on a wild pitch. But he was stranded.
Medford pitched around a one-out walk and a two-out single in the top of the sixth. In the home half, Schmidt smacked a lead-off single and took second on Alex Thompson’s sacrifice. But he got no further as Graham retired the next two Sox batters.
Buck pitched the seventh an issued a walk to Johnson who took second on Bengston’s grounder to third. And when Johnson rounded second too far, the Sox caught him in a rundown and Schmidt wound up tagging him out to complete a unique doubleplay. Grimsley bounded out and it went to the bottom of the final frame.
Graham retired the first two but Harp blooped a single to right to keep the Sox alive. Moments later, however, the Maumelle hurler got the final out on C.J. Wallace’s fly to left, ending the game.
The Sox will be back in action tonight at Cabot.
