Sox edge Benton in rain-shortened game
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
Dodging raindrops most of the evening, the Bryant Blacksox AAA American Legion team picked up an abbreviated 4-3 win over the rival Benton McClendon’s team at Bryant High School field on Thursday, July 8.
Of the seven runs scored in the game only one was earned as Bryant’s Justin Wells out-dueled Benton’s Ross Rankin and Luke Flowers. Wells struck out nine, walked one and scattered five hits.
Offensively, the Sox needed just four hits to take advantage of some Benton miscues.
The Sox improved to 24-5 overall with the victory, 8-1 in Zone IV play. Benton dropped to 16-10 and 4-4. District Tournament play begins July 22 in Pine Bluff.
Wells held Benton hitless over the first three inning as he and his teammates built a 3-0 lead.
The Sox scored their first run in the bottom of the opening inning when Todd Bryan singled to left and sprinted to second when the ball was misplayed. He advanced to third on a passed ball but remained there as, with two down, Travis Wood drew a walk. Another passed ball allowed Bryan to score. Wood went all the way to third when Benton catcher Austin Samples couldn’t track down the ball but he was stranded.
In the second, Zack Young bounced a one-out single into left and Korey Hunter drew a wild throw to first on his bouncer to third, putting runners at second and third. Young scored when Dustin Easterly groundout out to short. After moving to third on that play, Hunter came home on a wild pitch.
Bryant miscues helped Benton get on the board in the top of the third. After Wells struck out the first two, Heath Roseberry beat out an infield hit and reached second on a late, wild throw to first. A wild pitch sent him to third then he scored on Matt Little’s infield hit.
Samples kept the inning going with a base hit up the middle then Rankin hit a bouncer to short that was booted allowing Little to score.
But Wells got Flowers to pop to Jeff Carpenter at short to end the inning with the lead still intact.
And the Sox eked out another run to make it 4-2 in the bottom of the inning. Travis Wood walked and stole second. Daniel Price’s bloop single to right allowed Wood to reach third and he scored from there on a passed ball.
With Price at second and two out, Young was robbed of an RBI hit by right fielder Seth Lee, keeping it 4-2.
It stayed that way until the fifth when the rain kept intensifying. Wells and his mates worked rapidly to try to get the top of the inning in so it would be an official game. (A game has to go five innings — or four and and half innings if the home team is leading — in order to be official.)
Benton, however, wouldn’t cooperate after Wells had fanned the first two in the inning. Little singled to right then Samples walked. Wells got within a strike of ending the inning against Rankin but the Benton clean-up hitter singled to left, chasing Little home. A wild pitch put the tying and go-ahead runs at second and third but Carpenter made a tough play to retire Flowers and end the threat.
Flowers worked around a double by Wells in the bottom of the inning and the game went to the sixth. Again, Wells fanned the first two and, again, the next batter got on base. This time, Jess Westbrook was hit by a pitch. With Jim Sudderth hitting for Lee, Westbrook swiped second. But the rain intensified at that point and the game was eventually called, reverting back to the previous inning.
