Sox run-rule Colts for 10th in a row
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).
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — In a season that lasts from May until August, there are bound to be ups and downs for any baseball team. You try to ride the good streaks for all they’re worth and you try to minimize the slumps.
For the Bryant Black Sox AAA American Legion team, times have been good since the start of the season. The Sox have caught a big wave and they’re having some fun. With Friday’s 13-4 romp over a good North Little Rock Colts team at DeJanis Memorial Park, Bryant notched its 10th straight victory pounding out 13 hits including nine from the line-up’s top four hitters. Dustin Morris went 3-for-3 with a walk. He was also hit by a pitch to get on base all five times he came to the plate. He scored four runs and drove in one.
But hitting hasn’t been the key to Bryant’s fast start. Though the team, unofficially, is hitting a whopping .355 on the season, few of the players nor the coaches feel like they’ve busted loose at the plate yet.
The pitching, however, continues to be even better and deeper than manager Craig Harrison had first imagined.
Matt Lewis pitched effectively as the starter as North Little Rock and Kevin Littleton contributed his second straight impressive showing in relief.
To show how good the Bryant pitching has been, Lewis surrendered four earned runs in 3 2/3 innings and the staff’s earned run average jumped up to 1.63. That’s including mound work by nine different hurlers this season.
“We knew, on paper, (we had good pitching),” Harrison commented. “But until you put a guy out there in a game . . . “
Harrison admitted that he and his brother, assistant coach Tic Harrison, had discussed sending lefty Brad Chism, one of the staff aces to the mound against the Colts after Chism’s turn in the rotation was washed out on the previous Wednesday.
“We made the decision that we need to see what some of these guys can do,” he related. “We challenged Matty (Lewis) and we challenged Kevin.”
And they came through. Lewis struggled early but it wasn’t because he wasn’t throwing quality pitches. In fact, North Little Rock was hitting his curve ball. Ken Merrill, who went 3-for-3 in the game, doubled home a run and Jay Sayes singled in another, both off curves, in a two-run home first.
“I thought we made adjustments and that was the key to the game,” Harrison said. “In the first inning, they hit Lewis’s curve, so we said, ‘Hey, if they’re going to get on top of the plate and hit the breaker, we’ll throw the fastball.’ I think we threw maybe five the rest of the game.”
Lewis allowed only one other hit until he started to close in on his pitch limit in the fourth. He retired the first two batters then twice came within a strike of getting through the inning, he hit batters consecutively. A third hitter, Brad Lawson, slapped an 0-2 delivery to right for a single to load the bases. Owen Handloser then singled to left to plate two runs and Littleton came in.
With runners at second and third, Littleton retired Brian Harper on a grounder to short to end the inning, preserving a 7-4 Sox lead.
“Kevin did a great job again tonight,” Harrison said. “And Matt did what we needed him to do. And we played great defense.”
Harper, the North Little Rock ace who has already signed with Westark Junior College, was victimized by the Bryant offense. Again, Harrison pointed to his team’s ability to adjust.
“At first, we were all out on our front foot trying to pull (Harper’s) change-up,” Harrison noted. “We got together and said, ‘He’s not going to throw the ball by you, stay back and hit the ball up the middle.’ And we started hitting the ball.”
Harper only lasted 3 1/3 innings, surrendering six runs on six hits. And when he left the game, the Colts came back with their No. 2 guy Sayes.
“That surprised me,” Harrison said. “We beat their (No. 3 pitcher) last week.”
The Sox took a 1-0 lead in the first when Morris was hit by a pitch, took second on an errant pickoff throw by Harper and raced home on a double past third base by Michael McClellan, who wound up driving in four runs in the game, going 2-for-2 with three walks. The free passes upped his total to a whopping 17 walks in eight games.
After North Little Rock gained the lead in the bottom of the inning, the Sox tied it in the third. Morris again was the instigator with a one-out double to left-center. McClellan walked then Matt Brown stroked a single to left to drive in the run.
Bryant broke the game open in the fourth. Harper hit Lewis with a pitch then walked Cody Dreher. Chris Sory then perfectly placed a sacrifice bunt to set up the five-run outburst. Matt White and Morris followed with RBI singles that spelled the end of Harper’s stint on the mound. Sayes took over and issued another free pass to McClellan. Brown then tapped one to Matt Banks, who had just taken over for Sayes at third. White dashed home and got there just as the ball arrived. Catcher Erik Mercado couldn’t hang onto the throw and White was safe. An out later, Cody Graddy cracked a two-run single up the middle.
And, after North Little Rock’s bid to make a game of it, the Sox hit Sayes up for three more runs in the top of the fifth. Sory bounced a single through the left side, White walked and Morris singled to load the bags for McClellan who came through with a single down the right-field line that plated two. Morris scored, moments later, when Brown grounded out.
With two down in the sixth, Jordan Davis smashed a laser over the head of Lawson in center for a double. He took third on a wild pitch then scored when Sory reached base on a third strike that got past the catcher. White singled to left then walks to Morris and McClellan pushed another run home. Brown then beat out an infield hit for an RBI and the 13-4 lead.
