Hastings perfect into seventh, Senior Sox settle for 1-1 tie at Georgia showcase
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).
EMERSON, Ga. — Left-hander Jason Hastings took a perfect game into the bottom of the seventh and final inning before the Team Georgia Mizuno Elite 17-and-under team, based in Alpharetta, Ga., broke it up and managed to forge a tie with the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team.
The game was the first for both teams in pool play at the Perfect Game-East Cobb Invitational wood bat showcase. (In showcase tournaments, ties are not unusual.)
Hastings retired the first 19 batters he faced before issuing a walk with one out in the home seventh. He had Mizuno’s Jarrett Wright down 1-2 in the count before issuing the free pass.
A balk allowed Wright to advance to second then a wild pitch got him to third. A pitch later, Mizuno’s Brett Centracchio broke up the no-hitter and the shutout with a swinging bunt that went for an RBI single. Though that was a cheap hit, the next batter Davis Murray lined a solid single to left, chasing Centracchio to third. But when Murray tried to stretch it to a double, Bryant left-fielder Evan Lee threw him out at second with Connor Tatum applying the tag to end the game.
The Sox were only able to muster one run on five hits. Turner Scruggs pitched four shutout innings. He worked around a two-out triple by Blake Patterson in the first. In the second, he issued a walk to Garrett Misenheimer, who was stranded.
The Sox best chance to score against Scruggs came in the third when Tatum beat out a bunt single and Drew Tipton reached on an error. But the Georgia team turned a doupleplay to get out of the jam.
Scruggs gave way to Matt Studdard in the fifth and the Sox dented the plate. With two out, Tatum singled to right and sprinted home on Tipton’s triple.
Studdard worked around a one-out single to Hastings in the sixth then worked a 1-2-3 seventh as the drama built for Hastings’ bid for perfection.
Bryant was set to continue pool play today at 12:45 p.m., against Centerfield Baseball Academy of Newnan, Ga. They’ll complete pool play Saturday at 4:30 against Training Camp Baseball of Lavergne, Tenn.
