BENTON — Let’s see, you’re 16 years old, just back from winning the prestigious 17-and-under Battle of Omaha Tournament and you’re about to play a team that, early in the season, you blasted 22-0. Add to that the fact that your team is playing its ninth game in the last seven days . . .
Chances are, the intensity for the game might not be too high even though the opponent is a rival.
Such was apparently the case for the Everett Black Sox Junior American Legion team of Bryant Wednesday night when they took on the Benton Panthers Junior team at Benton High School Field.
And, certainly, the Panthers remembered that 22-0 loss so their intensity was on another level. It helped too that there were some additions to the Benton lineup and they made a big difference. Right-hander Alex Graves shut out the Sox over four innings and wound up allowing just one run on six hits while catcher Grant Channell went 3 for 3 and drove in four runs as they led the Panthers to an 11-1 win in the first game of a doubleheader, snapping a seven-game winning streak for the Bryant team.
Neither Graves nor Channell were available for Benton when the teams met previously.
In addition, Bo Brewer and Ty Callahan each had two hits for the Panthers.
“I wasn’t surprised, actually,” acknowledged Sox coach Tyler Brown, regarding the intensity level. “With this team, it just depends on what day it is right now if we’re going to come out with energy, focus and some intensity. Today wasn’t one of those days.
“We try to get through their heads, you know, you’ve got to come out each and every day wanting to get better, wanting to get the guy next to you better,” he added. “And you’ve got to be focused. You’ve got to have energy, intensity. That’s how you win baseball games, being in the game, rooting on your teammate, making sure we’re doing the right things.
“Tonight, we didn’t come ready to play,” Brown asserted. “Five errors is not going to win you a ballgame, giving up eight runs in one inning is not going to win you a ballgame ever. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We’ve got to get better defensively.
“I think, hitting-wise, we’re all right. We saw a good arm and I thought we did all right on him. We swung at a few too many breaking pitches and we let a couple of good fastballs go. We’ve just got to get better defensively. It seems like our pitching is getting better and better each game but it doesn’t matter if we can’t play defense. We’re going to keep working on it and hopefully we figure it out before District comes.”
Benton gained the upper hand with a pair of unearned runs in the first inning as the defense let down lefty starter Beaux Bonvillain. A pair of errors had runners at first and second with two out. Bonvillain and Channell battled to a 3-2 count then the Benton hitter plugged the gap in right-center for a two-run double.
Bryant had an opportunity to score with one out in the second when Alex Shurtleff walked ahead of singles by Aaron Orender and Cameron Coleman. Jake East scalded a drive to center but Benton’s Coltyn Lane flagged it down. Graves got out of the jam when he induced a fly to right off the bat of Logan Allen.
That started a stretch in which the Panther hurler retired nine in a row before East beat out an infield hit with one down in the fifth. Base hits by Allen and Garrett Misenheimer brought him around to score the lone Sox run.
But, by then, the Panthers had built a 10-0 lead, keyed by the eight-run fourth, which started with a single by Landon Whitaker and Channell’s second double, which chased him home. Channell would up at third and, after Jacob Cooper walked, Ross Carver got a bunt down that Bonvillain fielded. But the Benton courtesy runner for Channell just beat the pitcher’s throw to Misenheimer, his catcher.
Brewer sacrificed to put runners at second and third then Callahan singled in Cooper. Lane followed with a grounder to short. The Sox tried to get the out at the plate but the throw was errant, making it 7-0.
A two-run single by Austin Harklau added to that. Noah Easterling relieved for the Sox and another error contributed to the uprising. After Easterling struck out Whitaker, Channell and Cooper each singled in runs to cap off the frame.
Bryant avoided the run-rule for the moment by scoring the run in the top of the fifth but Lane doubled in Brewer with one out in the home fifth to get it done.
