Early scoring puts Junior Sox in position for 10-8 win
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
Ten different players contributed hits as the Sport Shop Black Sox of Bryant outslugged the Ashdown[more] Panthers in a 10-8 win in nine innings at Bryant High School Field Saturday.
Manager Tyler Pickett also got a chance to look at five different pitchers, some for the first time this season as the Sox won their third game in a row and sixth in the last seven outings.
Drew Tipton, Hunter Oglesby and Jimbo Seale each had two hits. Dakota Besancon drove in three runs and Seale two.
“We hit the ball real well,” Pickett acknowledged. “The top of the lineup got it going for us. They were on base it seemed like all day. Tipton scored four runs for us. That’s all I can ask for my lead-off.
“It was a good day,” he added. “We’ve just got to capitalize on getting things done late in the innings and late in the games.”
Bryant jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the first two innings. Though Ashdown rallied for four in the third then scored three runs in the last two innings, the ultimate result never seemed to be in doubt.
“We’ve still got to work on throwing strikes,” Pickett mentioned, referring to the nine walks his pitchers surrendered to go with two hit batsmen. “We did get to rest some guys that needed the rest so that was good. We got a lot of guys on the mound. Some that hadn’t been on there in quite a while, saved a little pitching for league games. We’ve got quite a few coming up.”
The Sox travel to Texarkana for a doubleheader on Wednesday then visit Benton on Thursday.
Bryant and Ashdown were originally scheduled to play a pair of seven-inning games but they wound up agreeing to a single nine-inning contest.
Ashdown scratched first Drew Day started the game with a walk and, after another free pass to Starnes York, Colton Redfern singled up the middle for an RBI. Drew Akins followed with a line drive to shortstop Blake Patterson, who knocked it down and flipped to Tipton at second to start an inning-ending doubleplay.
Bryant’s first started with a walk as well. Tipton drew the pass then Patterson, Oglesby and Besancon each cracked singles to produce a 2-1 lead. When Seale’s grounder to third was misplayed, Oglesby scored the third run. Weston Jones followed with a high pop that Day, the Ashdown shortstop, mishandled. Besancon scored though the Panthers were able to get a force out at second on the play.
Oglesby, the Bryant starter, retired the side in order in the second and the Sox doubled their total in the home half. Back-to-back doubles by Dalton Holt and Tipton produced the first run. Patterson walked then Oglesby hit a grounder to short. Day tried to get a force at second but his throw was off-line and went into shallow right field, allowing Tipton to score and Patterson to reach third. He would score on a grounder to short by Besancon. Seale singled in Oglesby to make it 8-1.
Jones doubled and Collins Fredriksson reached on a walk to load the bases for Holt who hit the ball hard on a line but right at second baseman Dakota Kendrick to end the inning.
Tipton tried his hand on the mound in the third and made a bid to get through the inning despite a pair of walks. When York grounded into a force at second, Ashdown had runners at the corners with two out. Redfern, however, came through for his team again, shooting a single up the middle to drive in a run. Akins followed with a blooper behind first base that fell just beyond the outstretched glove for first sacker Tre Davis in short right.
That loaded the bases. A passed ball got York home then Trent Fricks hit a chopper that hopped too high for Davis to get a glove on. The single drove in two more to make it 8-5.
But Tipton got out of it at that point then retired the side on just eight pitches in the fourth.
In between, Sport Shop scratched out a run. Tipton’s speed forced a high throw on his roller to Day at short. With one out Oglesby doubled him to third then Besancon’s groundout produced the RBI to make it 9-5.
Caleb Chaffin became the third Bryant pitcher in the fifth. He issued a walk to Tyler Olson but then struck out York and got Redfern to ground into a doubleplay.
Meanwhile, right-hander Josh Reynolds had taken over for Redfern on the bump for the Panthers. He had worked out of the second-inning jam and wound up going the rest of the way, allowing just two unearned runs.
Bryant got the second one in the fifth when Tipton beat out a slow roller to third and raced to second on an errant throw to first. He held when Patterson’s pop was dropped but scored on a solid single to right by Chaffin to make it 10-5.
In the top of the sixth, Chaffin hit Akins with a pitch and, with one out, surrendered a single to Reynolds. But he snagged a liner back to the box off Hunter Currence’s bat, turned and whipped a throw to second to double up Akins to end the inning.
Davis relieved in the seventh and worked out of a two-out bases-loaded pickle but he struggled to find the strike zone to start the eighth. After three walks, Justin Emmerling took over and, on his first pitch, got Dominick Bishop to bounce back to the mound for a force at home.
But a wild pitch allowed Reynolds to score. Currence came home on a bouncer to first by Day. Andrew Kincaid, in at first, fielded the ball but his throw to the plate to try to get Currence was off the mark. But when Bishop tried to score as well, Seale, the Bryant catcher, pounced on the ball and fired to Emmerling at the plate. He applied the tag for the second out of the inning. Olson then bounced to Fredriksson at second to end the frame with Bryant up 10-7.
Ashdown added another run on an infield hit by York, a single to left by Redfern and an RBI grounder by Austin Bearden. With the potential tying run at the plate, Emmerling got Reynolds to fly to Jones in left to end the game.
BRYANT SPORT SHOP BLACK SOX 10, ASHDOWN PANTHERS 8
Junior American Legion
Panthers ab r h bi Black Sox ab r h bi
Day, ss 4 1 0 1 Tipton, 2b-p-3b 4 4 2 1
Olson, c 3 0 1 0 Patterson, ss 3 2 1 0
York, lf 3 2 1 0 Kincaid, rf-1b 1 0 0 0
Redfern, p-1b 4 1 3 2 Oglesby, p-cf 3 2 2 1
Akins, 1b-3b 4 1 1 0 Chaffin, p 1 0 1 1
Fricks, cf 2 0 1 2 Emmerling, 1b-p 1 0 1 0
Bearden, rf 2 0 0 1 Besancon, cf-rf-ss 4 1 1 3
Reynolds, 3b-p 4 1 1 0 Seale, c 5 0 2 2
Kendrick, 2b 2 0 0 0 Jones, 3b-rf-lf 5 0 1 0
Currence, 2b 1 1 0 0 Davis, 1b-p-rf 5 0 0 1
Bishop, rf-cf 3 1 0 0 Fredriksson, rf-2b 4 0 1 0
Holt, lf-cf5110
Totals 32 8 8 6 Totals 41 10 13 9
Ashdown 104 000 021 — 8
BRYANT 441 010 00x — 10
E—Day 4, Reynolds, York, Akins, Kincaid. DP—Bryant 3. LOB—Bryant 11, Ashdown 8. 2B—Holt, Tipton, Jones, Olson.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Ashdown
Redfern (L) 1.1 8 4 7 2 0
Reynolds 6.2 2 0 6 2 4
BRYANT
Oglesby 2 1 1 1 2 2
Tipton 2 4 3 3 2 1
Chaffin (W) 2 0 0 1 1 1
Davis 1 2 2 1 3 0
Emmerling (S) 2 0 0 2 0 0
Davis pitched to three batters in the eighth.
HBP—Akins (by Chaffin), Redfern (by Davis). WP—Oglesby, Emmerling. PB—Seale.
