Zone 4 showdown claimed by Sox
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By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
PINE BLUFF — Want to know why the defending State champion, Bryant Black Sox AAA American Legion team is off to a 19-1 start to the 2006 season?
Well, when Pine Bluff Simmons Bank scored six runs on the Sox in their Zone 4 showdown on Thursday, June 22, it was just the second time anyone has scored that many runs against Bryant this season. In fact, no one since Cabot pinned a 6-1 loss on the Sox on May 24, has since scored more than four times.
Going into the game, Bryant opponents had only scored 29 runs in 19 games.
Now when Cabot got six back in May, the Sox were scrambling for what they could get on offense. Such wasn’t the case when Pine Bluff managed it. For the fourth game in a row and fifth in the last six games, the Sox scored in double figures as they kept their league record unscathed with a 14-6 victory at venerable Taylor Field.
Considering the two teams only had three losses between them coming in, their showdown was no work of art. Between them, there were 11 errors.
“If someone had told me before the game that we were going to win by eight runs I’d have said, ‘Wow, we’re going to play good,’” commented Bryant manager Craig Harrison. “We swung the bats, we hit the ball and we ran the bases well.
“Our defense — (Taylor) Field is tough to play on,” he noted. “It’s real hard. It’s chopped up and they didn’t drag it before the game. They didn’t water it and we just kind of butchered some plays. But we kept our composure.”
Justin Wells, who as the Bryant closer has four saves, started on the mound for just the second time this season. He worked three scoreless frames as the Sox built a 4-0 lead. Pine Bluff scored an unearned run in the fourth but after the Sox went up 7-1 in the top of the fifth, the Bankers got to Wells for four in the bottom of the inning and had the potential tying run at the plate when Tanner Zuber relieved with one out.
Despite being down by two, Pine Bluff put the squeeze play on. Ben Fox missed the bunt and the Sox chased down Dustin Huggins, who had just tripled in a run, for the second out of the inning. Zuber then fanned Fox to end the inning.
Bryant added two runs in the top of the sixth then blew the game open with five in the seventh.
“We kind of pitched backwards,” Harrison said. “We probably won’t do that again. Justin’s better as a closer and we’ve got enough starters that can get people out.
The Sox pounded out 14 hits including four by Aaron Davidson and three by Wells who drove in three runs. Travis Queck had two hits and Joey Winiecki kept his season-long hitting streak alive at 19 games but just barely. He was 0 for 3 when he beat out a slow roller to second for an infield hit to spark the sixth-inning uprising.
Danny Riemenschneider sacrificed Winiecki to second and, after a theft of third, Wells doubled to chase him home. An RBI single by Davidson made it 9-5.
In the seventh, the wheels kind of came off for the Bankers as three errors contributed to a five-run frame, two of them came with two out. Queck opened the inning with a double off the wall in left-center, taking third on an errant throw back to the infield. Cory Lambert walked and stole second but Reece Cross, the second Pine Bluff pitcher, retired the next two. But Queck scored when Winiecki’s grounder to short was booted and, after a pitching change, Lambert followed when Riemenschneider’s bouncer to third drew a wild throw.
Back-to-back doubles by Wells and Davidson capped off the inning.
Pine Bluff scored an unearned run in the bottom of the inning to set the final score. Zuber was credited with a save.
Bryant built its early lead with two runs in the second and two more in the third off lefty starter Sam Neal. Ryan Wilson’s two-run double broke the ice in the second. In the third, Wells singled, Davidson doubled and Devin Hurt came through with a base hit to chase them both home.
After Pine Bluff scored on an error, a balk and a two-out single by Tyler Threlkeld, Bryant added three in the top of the fifth. Wells was hit by a pitch and Davidson singled him to third. With one down, Queck singled up the middle to drive in Wells.
With runners at the corners, Queck stole second. Fox, Pine Bluff’s catcher, faked a throw to second and tried to pick Davidson off of third only to throw it past Huggins and into the left-field corner. Davidson scored then Queck rounded third and followed when left-fielder Trey Austin misfired on his return throw.
Matty Johnson, who had three of Pine Bluff’s 10 hits, tripled into the left-center gap to start his team’s rally in the bottom of the fifth. He scored when Sheldon Pratt’s grounder to second was misplayed. An out later, Cory DeJarnette launched a two-run homer to make it 7-4.
The inning continued with a bad-hop single by Logan Kizer and Huggins’ triple to right-center that set up the squeeze play that went awry.
