MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After facing the last two batters at the end of a 4-3 win over Elite Sports Academy of Savannah, Tenn., Austin Kelly, freshly out of a cast on his right wrist, started the championship game against the St. Louis Gamers on Wednesday evening at the Keith Hagan Memorial All-America wood bat tournament. He proceeded to whip up a five-hitter allowing only an unearned run in the third and, when the Everett Black Sox Junior American Legion team of Bryant rallied for a run in the bottom of the seventh, the result was a 2-1 win and the championship of the 16-and-under division of the prestigious tourney.
Jordan Gentry scored the winning run with two out in the bottom of the seventh when Logan Allen drew a bases-loaded walk. Gentry had singled to left with one out in the inning. With two down, Cameron Coleman and Jake East drew walks to load the bases before Allen took a 3-1 pitch for the game-winning pass.
Gentry’s hit was just the third of the game for Bryant. Allen had the first hit for the Sox leading off the bottom of the first. He was sacrificed to second by Connor Tatum then chased home on a double by Garrett Misenheimer.
Kelly worked around a single in the top of the first and worked a 1-2-3 second. In the third, a single and an error were followed by a walk. A sacrifice bunt resulted in another error, loading the bases with no one out. Kelly got the next batter to pop out but a wild pitch allowed the run to score, tying the game.
Neither team had many base-runners after that. Tatum drew a two-out walk in the home third. The Gamers had a batter reach on a throwing error in the fifth but stranded him.
In the top of the sixth, a wild pitch on strike three put a runner on for the Gamers. With one down, a single and a wild pitch had runners at second and third. But Kelly forced the St. Louis team to strand them when he got the second out on strikes and induced a grounder to East at short.
In the home sixth, Tatum worked a one-out walk but didn’t get past first. Similarly, Kelly allowed a two-out walk (just his second of the game) in the top of the seventh but ended the inning with his eighth strikeout.
Now 23-6 on the season, Everett begins Zone 4 tournament play in Sheridan this Saturday at 10 a.m., against the Benton Panthers Junior team.
