AAA Black Sox collect much-needed victory
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
The Bryant Bowen-Hefley Black Sox AAA American Legion team sent nine batters to the plate in each of the first two innings while building a 9-0 lead then held on for an 11-8 victory over Cabot at Ashley Park Tuesday. The game was marred by the ejection of two players and a coach from Cabot.
Logan Critz spanked three hits and drove in three runs and Zack Dickson drove in four with a pair of hits to lead Bryant to victory. J.J. Yant, who also had two hits, picked up the win on the mound with some relief help from Josh Caldwell.
“We’ve struggled,” stated Bryant manager Craig Harrison. “We were 3-10 in our last 13 (games). The last couple of games here we have not played very well. Right now, this ballclub uses any win. I don’t care if it’s Woodlawn or if it’s (top-ranked) North Little Rock or it’s the Blind School, we need a win. And we got it tonight.
“We started a little different lineup, tried to shake a few things up and the guys we put in responded,” Harrison added, referring to 16-year-olds Dickson and Dustin Morris, who started at third and second, respectively. “Dickson came up and knocked the cover off the ball his first two times up. Hey, those guys are going to push the other guys.
“We still didn’t play very well defensively,” Harrison said, referring to his team’s five errors. “It’s still a concern. It’s still a battle. We came out here and practiced Sunday twice and worked on that. The good thing was we worked on the pitcher getting off the mound (to cover first), we weren’t making that play.”
The Sox successfully executed on that play late in the game.
“That’s the value of practice,” Harrison noted. “We don’t get a lot of practice time with our field situation (sharing with the Optimist’s Babe Ruth League) so when we do have practice time we have to make it count.”
The team pounded the ball early, knocking Cabot starter Waylan Arnold out before the first inning was over.
A one-out single by Brandon Fitts started a three-run opening inning for Bryant. J.J. Yant walked then Critz lashed a single to right to break the goose egg. Kris Kuykendall singled in Yant and, after Anthony Rose walked to load the bases, Dickson singled in the third run.
Cabot’s Lonnie Martin relieved and got out of the jam before further damage could be done.
But Yant worked a 1-2-3 second and the Sox revved up the offense again with the help of an inning-opening error that allowed Billy Landers to reach base. Fitts walked and, an out later, Critz chased both home with a lined double to right-center.
Another single by Kuykendall and a walk to Rose loaded the base again for Dickson who drilled a single up the middle to drive in two more runs.
A walk to Travis Lawhon loaded the bases. Morris then grounded into a force at second. Rose scored then so did Dickson when Cabot tried to turn a double play and threw the ball away on the relay to first.
Martin cracked a two-run homer in the top of the third to get Cabot on the board. Cabot loaded the bases on a single and a pair of Bryant errors but Yant worked out of the jam, eventually striking out the side.
In the fourth, Yant pitched around a pair of singles but the defense let down again in the fifth. Cabot loaded the bases with one out thanks to the miscues then Arnold lined one to right-center that drove home two runs. Jake Vaughn also tried to score but the Bryant relay from Lawhon in right to Rose, the first baseman, to Critz at the plate nailed him. Critz effectively blocked the plate with his left foot, preventing Vaughn from getting to the plate. He was tagged out despite the fact that he appeared to get there before the ball.
Cabot’s fans and coaches had been complaining about balls and strikes all evening and the play served to further intensify their wrath. When Arnold was thrown out trying to steal third moments later, Evan Neiser, the batter at the time, made a comment that resulted in his ouster.
A lead-off single by Lawhon in the bottom of the inning came to nothing for Bryant then, with Caldwell on the mound, Cabot came up with a two-out rally. Martin singled, Jason Hoofman was hit by a pitch and Ethan Baker singled to load the bases for Jeremiah Ring who belted a grand slam to cut Bryant’s lead to 9-8.
But rounding third, Ring gestured to the Bryant bench and some fans that had been razzing the Cabot players since Neiser’s ejection. As a result, Ring too was thrown out.
The resulting clash — which threatened to get physical — between one of the Cabot coaches and the home plate umpire resulted in another ejection.
The scene was reminiscent of past games involving Bryant and Cabot, a fact that was not lost on Harrison. “We kept our composure,” he noted. “We made the play at the plate. They’ve got all kinds of excuses. But that’s his team and not my concern. When we play Cabot, we expect to win. We’re going to go out there and beat them on principle alone. I said it last year and I say it again this year, ‘We don’t lose to them.’”
When play resumed, Caldwell got the final out.
And the Sox responded with a pair of important runs with the help of some aggressive base-running in the bottom of the sixth. Yant and Critz singled to start the inning. Yant was retired when Kuykendall’s bunt didn’t get far enough away from Baker, Cabot’s catcher. But a wild pitch moved the runners up a base and Critz aggressively took off for home as soon as Anthony Rose made contact on a grounder to short. Vaughn booted the ball allowing Rose to reach and Kuykendall to take third. He then headed home as soon as Dickson got the bat on a delivery, grounding to third for the second out.
“If we’re running our regular ‘make-it-go-through’, we don’t score on those groundballs,” Harrison mentioned. “Those two runs were so important. That way you don’t face the tying run (with each batter in the seventh).”
It also stemmed Cabot’s momentum. Caldwell retired the side in the bottom of the inning on three groundouts, using just six pitches to nail down the win.
The Sox improved to 11-12 with a chance to get back to .500 Thursday with a home game against Sylvan Hills. They begin play in the Searcy tournament Friday at 2 p.m. against Forrest City. They play Newport at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sylvan Hills again Sunday at 3 p.m.
“We’re going up there ready to win the tournament,” Harrison declared.
Brown two-hits Cabot as young Sox remain hot
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
Right-hander Luke Brown had a no-hitter through 4 2/3 innings then settled for a two-hitter as the Bryant Bowen-Hefley Black Sox A American Legion team topped Cabot 5-1 at Ashley Park Tuesday.
It was the fifth win in the last six games for the Sox who improved to 19-7 on the season going into Thursday’s game at home against Sylvan Hills.
Brown walked just two and hit three batters. He fanned four. John Faucett slapped a single to right with two out and two on in the top of the fifth to break up Brown’s no-hitter. With the bases loaded, Dustin Tarrants then beat out an infield single off Brown’s glove to knock in Cabot’s lone run of the game.
But those were Cabot’s lone hits. Brown pitched around an error in the sixth as well as a pair of errors and a walk in the seventh to close out the win.
For their part, the Sox only managed three hits but they took advantage of seven walks, three hit batters and a Cabot error to account for their runs.
Brown, Phillip Primm and Beau Hamblin had singles for Bryant.
But the Black Sox didn’t need a hit to score four times in the third, breaking up a scoreless game. Mark Smith was hit by a pitch and, after he was sacrificed to second by Brown, Tarrants, the Cabot starter, issued a walk to Dustin Morris. An out later, Zack Dickson, Chris Sory, Ryan Sanders and Primm earned consecutive walks to force in three runs.
Tarrants gave way to John Owen and, with a 1-1 count on Sean Sebourn, Sory took advantage of Owen’s long windup and cleanly stole home without a play to make it 4-0.
Bryant loaded the bases in the fourth when Brown and Morris were hit by pitches and Hamblin got his single up the middle with one out, but Owen got out of the jam without a run scoring.
The Sox tacked on a run in the sixth when Brown singled with one down, took second on an errant pickoff throw, third on a wild pitch and scored on yet another errant delivery from Owen.
Brown then ended the game in style in the top of the seventh. With the bases loaded and two down, he picked off the runner at third, Damon Neiser, to end the contest.
