AAA Sox go 9 to edge LR Red
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By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
For the second night in a row, the Bryant Black Sox AAA American Legion team managed to score just one run in seven innings yet extract a key Zone 4 victory. On Tuesday, June 6, the one run held up for a 1-0 win over Little Rock Post 1 Blue (see related story). On Wednesday, June 7, the one run held up to get them into extra innings and, in the ninth, Devin Hurt was able to score all the way from first when Cory Lambert’s slicing liner got past Little Rock Post 1 Red left fielder Corey Woods and rolled to the fence.
The resulting 2-1 victory kept the Sox unbeaten in league play while pinning the first loss in Zone play on Red.
“Tonight was frustrating,” admitted Black Sox manager Craig Harrison. “We’re struggling at the plate. We’ve tried getting on them, we’ve tried being relaxed, we’ve tried getting on top of the plate, backing off . . . I mean, we’ve tried everything and it’s just not working.
“But we’re still winning,” he emphasized. “And when you don’t play good and you still win, first, you’ve got a good team and, second, if we can get our hitting (slump) out of the way now — because we don’t want to go into this kind of thing in July.
“It’s a gutsy group,” Harrison continued. “They want to win so bad and try so hard, I think they’re trying too hard maybe. You know, it’s like a golf swing. If you’re thinking about keeping the left arm straight, keep it in, pull it back, follow through instead of just going up there and finding a good pitch. We’ll keep working on it.”
The good news is how well the Sox are pitching. After Tanner Zuber and Justin Wells combined on the shutout on the previous night, Drew Short and Danny Riemenschneider with late help from Wells teamed up to limit Red to one run on five hits over nine frames. And Short and Riemenschneider had just returned from a weeklong senior trip.
“We did good on the mound,” Harrison concurred. “Drew did a good job coming off (the break). He wasn’t sharp but he still got outs. Then Danny came in and, gosh, we threw him more than we should’ve but he was getting outs. As long as it was a save situation, we were going to go to Wells with the lead. Once we went into extras, it’s like when do you put your closer in, because it’s not a save situation. We thought if we could work through the order and get to (the ninth batter) and get him out, then we’d start Justin fresh at the top of the order. Fortunately, we were able to do that.”
Riemenschneider had worked around five walks in his 4 1/3 innings, thanks in large part to his catcher Aaron Davidson, who picked off runners at third in both the sixth and seventh innings.
The game was a scoreless duel between Short and Bradley Kissinger until the Sox got a run in the fourth. Davidson opened that inning with a single. David Martin followed with a sacrifice bunt that was botched by Kissinger allowing Martin to reach. Kissinger tried to pick Davidson off second but second sacker Blake Frazier couldn’t handle the throw and Davidson moved up to third. He scored from there when Devin Hurt was robbed of a hit by Kissinger who turned the shot into a 1-6-3 doubleplay.
Short issued a lead-off walk to Evan Bettis to start the fifth inning and gave way to Riemenschneider. Bettis swiped second, advanced to third on a grounder by Frazier and, after Drew Tappan walked, scored when Brian Clark’s bloop to center resulted in a force at second.
Red threatened in the sixth when Woods led off with an infield hit. An errant pickoff throw allowed him to go to third with no one out. Riemenscheider held him there when Alex Rogers bounced back to the mound. With Brendon Frazier at the plate, Red tried a squeeze play only to have Frazier fail to make contact allowing Davidson to gun down Woods at third. Frazier wound up striking out to end the inning.
In the seventh, Riemenschneider issued one-out walks to Blake Frazier and Tappan. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch but when Frazier rounded third too far, Davidson fired to Martin who applied the tag before he could scramble back to the base. Clark then lined to Wells at short to end the inning.
The Sox got runners to second in the sixth, seventh and eighth inning but couldn’t get them any further. In the ninth, however, Hurt drew a one-out walk ahead of Lambert’s game-winning double.
Wells picked up the win after getting the final two outs in the top of the ninth.
