Black Sox wrap up regular season, prepare for District tournament
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting 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
BRYANT TIMES
Left-hander Brad Chism fired a one-hit shutout as the Bryant Black Sox AAA American Legion team closed out the 2001 regular season with a doubleheader split with Searcy Crain Automotive Saturday at the Bryant High School field.
Behind Chism’s superb performance, the Sox won the opener 2-0. Searcy eked out a 4-3 win in the nightcap.
Bryant, which begins Zone 4 District Tournament play this Friday at 7 p.m. against Arkansas Trailer of Little Rock at Sheridan, finished the regular season with a 35-12 record and the top ranking in the state according to arkansasbaseball.com and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
On Saturday, however, the Sox, at times, appeared to be feeling the effects of those 47 games all at once, particularly in the second contest. The oppressive heat, no doubt, added to that plus a pretty gutsy pitching performance by Searcy right-hander Justin Moore who went seven innings after playing first base in the opener.
Moore almost gave out as the Sox rallied in the sixth inning to get within a run but got out of the jam with a fortuitous hop and got his second win to close out the victory with a 1-2-3 seventh.
Chism, though, was outstanding in the opener. Only three Searcy batters reached base and one of those came on the lone Bryant error of the night with one out in the fifth. He fanned six.
The lone Searcy hit was a one-out single up the middle by Wayne Bonds in the third. Chism had issued his only walk to lead off the inning but catcher Cody Graddy picked him off with Bonds at the plate.
Chism fanned the next batter and speared a popped-up bunt to end the inning.
Clay Kiihnl reached base on the fifth inning error by first baseman Matt Lewis. But Lewis made up for the boot on the next play making a fine catch of Ryan Escalante’s foul pop. That started a string in which Chism retired eight in a row to end the game.
Lewis’s was not the only sparkling play made by the Bryant defense in the game. Dustin Morris at third, Scott Yant at second and Matt Brown at shortstop each turned in gems. And the outfield play was flawless.
Escalante, the Searcy starter, was nearly as good. He allowed just four hits, walked three, hit a batter and struck out five. One of the walks came back to haunt him, however. It came in the first inning. With one out, Matt White drew the pass then Michael McClellan was hit by a pitch. Kevin Littleton, who had two of Bryant’s hits, then came through with an RBI single to left to give Chism the 1-0 lead he made hold up until the sixth.
Morris walked to start the sixth. White sacrificed him to second then McClellan smacked a single to left. Morris tried to score on the play but Searcy left-fielder Michael Wommack charged in and fired a throw to the plate that was in time to get Morris.
Escalante appeared to be out of the inning when he struck out Littleton. But the third strike got past Dusty Roddy, the catcher, and Littleton reached first. Beau Hamblin followed with a bad-hop single that chased McClellan home to make it 2-0.
In the second game, Searcy had four hits and drew two walks in the first inning but only scored twice as Bryant starter Chris Sory did an admirable job at damage control.
Roddy and Clint Williams finished the game with three hits each and Roddy drove in a pair of the runs. His two-out RBI single in the top of the fourth gave Searcy a 4-1 lead, proving to be the decisive run.
“We didn’t want Roddy to beat us,” mentioned Bryant manager Craig Harrison. “We don’t like to issue intentional walks because that really tends to fire up the next batter, I think, and he becomes that much more dangerous. We tried to pitch around Roddy but we made a couple of pitches too good and he did a good job of hitting them hard.”
Damage control was the theme of the game for Moore, as well. He forced Bryant to strand 10 runners.
With Chance King in relief for Bryant, Searcy was unable to add to its lead in the final three innings. That gave Bryant a chance to rally in the sixth. With one out, Lewis walked and Yant reached on an error. A single by Morris loaded the bases. Lewis then scored and the other two moved up a base on a passed ball, making it 4-2. Matt White then launched a sacrifice fly to right to make it 4-3.
When McClellan drew a walk, the Sox had the potential tying run at third and a go-ahead run at first with Hamblin at the plate. On a 1-0 pitch, Hamblin hammered one up the middle but it skipped off the mound right to Parker the Searcy shortstop. He stepped on second for a force to end the rally.
