NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Playing their fifth game in four days and facing a four-game event in three days at a showcase this weekend in Memphis, the Everett Black Sox Junior American Legion team of Bryant was running low on pitching Wednesday night. Weary arms forced Sox manager Tyler Brown to give some other guys a shot on the mound and what he got wasn’t bad.
There were some rough spots in a couple of innings, however, and the North Little Rock Colts eked out a 6-5 win after Bryant rallied from a 5-2 deficit to tie it going into the bottom of the sixth.
Logan Allen and Weston Jones each had two hits for Everett. Garrett Misenheimer drove in three runs while Collin Welch knocked in one and Allen picked up an RBI. The latter trio all came through with clutch two-out hits to drive in runs.
Drew Brown got the start for the Sox and worked around an inning-opening walk in the bottom of the first. He struggled with his control in the second, which resulted in a three-run Colts’ uprising. Connor Tatum got out of that jam but surrendered two more runs in the third before wading through the Colts in scoreless fourth and fifth frames.
Bryant took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Jones singled, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Beaux Bonvillain and scored on Welch’s clutch double into the left-field corner with two away.
In the bottom of the inning, a walk, a hit batsman, a sacrifice and another batter struck by a pitch had the bases loaded with one out for North Little Rock. Reed Shepherd, who was 3-for-3 in the game, cleared the bags with a double.
Tatum retired Nick Butler on a fly to Allen in center then picked Shepherd off to end the inning.
The Sox whittled a run off the 3-1 bmargin in the top of the third when Allen reached on an error, stole second, advanced to third on a solid single to left by Dylan Hurt and scored on Misenheimer’s grounder to short as Hurt was running on the pitch.
Jones made a bid to drive in Hurt as well but he was robbed of a knock by Shepherd, the Colts’ third sacker.
The home third started with Allen robbing Danny Mitchell of extra bases by running down a shot into right-center. It ended when the Sox’ center fielder took a hit away from Chase Freeman with a shoe-top catch of a sinking liner to left-center.
In between, though, Zac Freeman beat out an infield hit and, on a hit-and-run, J.J. Askins slapped a single through the hole on the right side of the infield. After Ben Bailey flew out to Allen on a more routine play, Lawon Dulin cracked a two-run double to left.
Tatum would pitch around a one-out double in the fourth and a two-out single in the fifth.
In the meantime, the Sox rallied in the top of the fifth. Allen singled to left and Hurt walked. Both moved up on Jordan Gentry’s tap, which Askins, the Colts’ pitcher, made a play on. Misenheimer came up with two on and two out. On a 1-2 pitch, he smacked a line-drive single to center. Both runs scored to make it 5-4.
Jones greeted reliever Jordan Reed with an infield hit. With Bonvillain at the dish, a pitch got past the North Little Rock catcher but not far enough that Alex Shurtleff, running for Misenheimer could get home. But Jones moved up to second. Bonvillain worked the count to 3-2 and fouled off a pitch before drilling a long fly that Mitchell tracked down in deep center.
Though Everett didn’t tie it that inning, it would in the top of the sixth. Jake East walked, took second on a sacrifice by Aaron Orender and scored on Allen’s clutch two-out single to right.
Chase Freeman singled to start North Little Rock’s sixth. He was sacrificed to second and moved to third on Shepherd’s third hit, a single to left. Reed came up and popped up a bunt on a safety squeeze. Tatum nearly got to it in the air but wound up catching it on one-hop. With Freeman holding at third, he threw to second for a force.
But, moments later, a wild pitch allowed Freeman to score the tiebreaking run. Tatum got Mitchell to pop to second and the Sox came up in the top of the seventh only to have Reed set them down in order to close out the win.
The game was the first of the season for the Colts. The Sox, now 5-2, open play in Memphis on Friday against a team called the Diamonds. They’re also scheduled to play the Mississippi Marlins of Kosciuski, Miss., and Wynne on Saturday. On Sunday, they’ll take on a team from New Orleans, the Crescent City Canes.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK 6, BRYANT EVERETT 5
Junior American Legion
Black Sox ab r h bi Colts ab r h bi
Allen, cf 4 2 2 1 Mitchell, cf 3 0 0 0
Hurt, 1b-2b 3 1 1 0 Z.Freeman, ss 3 1 1 0
Gentry, c 4 0 0 0 Askins, p 2 0 1 0
Misenheimer, dh-1b3 0 1 3 Ware, cr 0 1 0 0
Shurtleff, pr-1b 1 0 0 0 Morris, lf 1 0 0 0
Jones, 3b 4 1 2 0 Bailey, c 2 0 1 0
Bonvillain, lf-rf 2 0 0 0 Harger, cr 0 1 0 0
East, ss 2 1 0 0 Dulin, 1b 1 1 1 2
Welch, rf 2 0 1 1 Blaylock, 1b 1 0 0 0
Orender, ph-lf 0 0 0 0 C.Freeman, rf 2 1 1 0
Tatum, 2b-p 3 0 0 0 Menard, 2b 0 1 0 0
Brown, p 0 0 0 0 Miller, ph-2b 1 0 0 0
Shepherd, 3b 3 0 3 3
Butler, lf 2 0 0 0
Reed, lf-p 1 0 0 0
Totals 28 5 7 5 Totals 22 6 8 5
Bryant 011 021 0 — 5
NLR 032 001 x — 6
E—Mitchell, Menard. LOB—Bryant 6, North Little Rock 4. 2B—Shepherd 2, Dulin. SB—Allen 2. S—Bonvillain, C.Freeman, Orender, Miller.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Bryant
Brown 1.1 3 3 1 2 0
Tatum (L) 4.2 3 3 6 0 0
North Little Rock
Askins 4.2 4 4 5 1 3
Reed (W) 2.1 1 1 2 1 2
HBP—Dulin, Menard (by Brown). WP—Tatum. PB—Bailey.
