Photos courtesy of Paul Dotson
LITTLE ROCK — It will come down to one game. And it’s Shelby, N.C., or bust for the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team.
Shelby is the site of the Legion World Series. And the Sox will go to the 2016 Series with a win tonight in the Mid-South Regional championship game at 5 p.m., against the survivor of the 2 p.m. elimination game between the Texarkana Razorbacks and the Sedalia, Mo., Travelers.
And the key for Bryant may just be how resilient they are after suffering a 6-5 loss to Texarkana on Saturday in a game that had negligible meaning in the tournament but considerable meaning for the Sox as they battled the archrival Razorbacks to the hilt, expending a lot of emotion and effort.
They’ll have to avoid the “Pontatoc affect” that occurred to the Mississippi champion earlier in the tourney. After blitzing Texarkana 11-0 to open the tournament on Wednesday and looking like the best team of the field, Pontatoc lost a gut-punch extra-inning game to Sedalia, 9-7, after building a 7-1 lead through six innings. The next day, they looked hollowed out as they got blown out of their game and the tournament, 11-0, to League City, Texas.
Actually, the Black Sox’ chances of going to North Carolina are no more difficult. Win or lose on Saturday, they were going to need to win one more on Sunday. But now, it’s do or die.
Now, under most tournament formats, Bryant wouldn’t have been playing Texarkana Saturday. After a victory over Sedalia in the winners bracket final on Friday, they would’ve moved forward to the finals and awaited the survivor of the losers bracket. But American Legion baseball still uses an archaic bracket — called “the old College World Series format” — that’s long been abandoned by the College World Series. With four teams left, the bracket pits two losers bracket teams in one game for survival but also makes the winners bracket victor take on another losers bracket team.
With a win, Bryant would’ve had two chances to capture the Regional title and the trip to the Series. As it stands, they’ll await Texarkana or Sedalia tonight.
For what it’s worth, the last time the Sox were this close to going to the Series was a painful 2014 Regional and they had two chances to win one game against Columbia, Tenn., only to lose both contests. The time before that, however, was in 2007 when they lost the “extra game” 15-2 to Paducah, Ky. Bryant advanced to await the survivor of the Paducah-League City game and, with a 6-2 win over the Texas team earned the trip to Shelby, a first for a Bryant team and just the fourth time an Arkansas team had made it.
Bryant had put itself in position to win Saturday’s game, rallying for four runs in the bottom of the sixth to erase a 3-1 deficit. They had a chance to get more but stranded the bases loaded.
Texarkana, however, rallied for three in the top of the eighth to regain the upper hand on the way to the victory, which kept their season from coming to an end.
It was the sixth meeting of the summer between the two perennial State powers and the Razorbacks’ fourth win.
“We were four outs away,” acknowledged Sox manager Darren Hurt. “They fought us and came up with a big hit.
“The big key is going to be that we can’t come out here (Sunday) and carry this thing with us,” he emphasized. “Or we’ll be out of here in seven innings and it won’t be in a good way. We’ve got two choices at this point.
“I hate this game,” he continued. “I hate this, winning the winners bracket and having to play the game, but it is what it is. It’s the way Legion sets up the bracket and it’s just unfortunate that we lose a little momentum playing a game that probably shouldn’t be played.
“But, like I told (the players), if last week somebody would’ve told us we could play one game to go to Shelby, we probably would’ve taken that,” Hurt concluded. “So, we’re right where we want to be.”
That big hit for Texarkana was a single to right by nine-hole hitter Riley Orr. It came with the bases loaded, two out and the Sox ahead 5-3. Will Smith, who had beaten out an infield hit to start the inning scored from third to make it 5-4 and, with two out, Texarkana manager Dane Peavy was sending Parker Ribble around from second. Ribble had also beaten out an infield hit but with two down in the inning.
In right field, Kelly charged Orr’s hit with designs on gunning down Ribble at the plate to keep the Sox ahead but the ball hugged the grass and got past him. Not only did Ribble score the tying run but Logan Vidrine, who had earned a walk, came around all the way from first to give Texarkana the 6-5 edge.
Aaron Orender, who had relieved starter Hunter Oglesby to get out of a jam in the fourth, had tossed three scoreless innings before he gave way to sidewinder Seth Tucker with two out and two on in that seventh.
Tucker had eased to a 1-2-3 inning to close out the 6-3 win over Sedalia on Friday but he issued the walk to Vidrine to start his Saturday appearance. He got a strike in to Orr who then slapped his second pitch to right.
With Orr at third, Tucker battled back to prevent him from scoring by inducing a foul pop that was hauled in by catcher Dylan Hurt.
Trying to start an answering rally in the bottom of the inning, Kelly lashed a single to right and advanced on a wild pitch. With one out, however, Jake East made a bid for his third hit of the game only to be robbed by Texarkana second basemen Nick Myers. Ready to score, Kelly was nabbed trying to scramble back to second to end the inning.
After a lead-off single by Texarkana’s Blake Hall in the ninth, Boston Heil came on to retire the next three, setting up the Sox’ home ninth. Lefty Hunter Lewis who had relieved in the sixth, threw three pitches out of the zone to Tucker then Vidrine was called to take the mound.
Bryant had bounced Vidrine around a little bit in a 9-6 win over the Razorbacks on July 8 but the right-hander got some payback as he came back to get Tucker out on a grounder to short then retired Orender and Scott Schmidt to close out the game.
Hurt said, “Looking back now, I guess we wish we would’ve stayed with AO but we had already decided, if anything got going, we were going to go to Tucker, based on what he did against them in the State tournament and especially the three hitters that were coming up. He had really dominated them in the State tournament. So we liked our chance with him on the mound. He came in and struggled with command then gave up the big hit.
“AK was just trying to make a play,” he noted.
Bryant took the initial lead in the first when, with two down, Garrett Misenheimer singled, Kelly walked and Jordan Gentry came through with an RBI knock. And when it was misplayed in left, Kelly sprinted to third and Gentry pulled into second. East made a bid for a hit on a drive to right but it was flagged down by Texarkana’s Cole Boyd.
The Razorbacks tied it in the home second. Smith walked and reached second when Myers’ grounder to third drew a wide throw to the bag. Oglesby struck out a batter then Ribble’s swinging bunt went for a hit. (Five of Texarkana’s nine hits didn’t get out of the infield.)
Vidrine picked up the RBI when he tapped into a force at second and beat the relay to first, avoiding an inning-ending doubleplay.
Texarkana starter Beau Burson shackled the Sox after that, blanking them on two hits over the next four frames.
The Razorbacks gave him a 3-1 lead in the fourth. Myers singled up the middle as did Stubber. Myers scored on a sacrifice fly by Ribble. Vidrine followed with a shot that Misenheimer knocked down at third. He scrambled to the ball and fired to first but the throw was errant putting runners at first and third.
Orender took over for the hard-luck Oglesby at that point. Orr’s chopper to second wasn’t hit hard enough for a doubleplay. Tucker got to it and threw to first for an out but Stubber scored.
Misenheimer saved more damage when he robbed Boyd of a hit to get the third out.
In the top of the fifth, Blake Hall singled. Smith hit a grounder to Misenheimer who threw to Tucker for a force and when Hall was cited for interference on the play, Smith was ruled out as well.
Another sparkling play by Misenheimer produced the third out.
In the sixth, Tucker made a tough play to help Orender get through another scoreless frame.
Bryant’s rally began with a one-out walk to Kelly. Gentry ripped a double down the left-field line then East blooped a single down the line in right to drive in a run. Tucker followed with a perfectly executed suicide squeeze to get Gentry home with the tying run.
With two down, Orender plugged the gap in left-center for an RBI double that put the Sox ahead. And when Alex Shurtleff followed with his second hit of the game, there were runners at the corners.
Lewis relieved for Texarkana but issued consecutive walks to Logan Allen and Hurt to force in another run, making it 5-3.
“I really thought, at that point, with the way our bullpen’s been that it was going to be tough on (Texarkana),” Darren Hurt said.
Orender needed just seven pitches to get through the top of the seventh.
