Junior Sox capture tourney title with three wins in one day
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HOT SPRINGS — Hall of Famer Ernie Banks was famous for saying, “Let’s play two,” in the sunshine of Wrigley Field in Chicago. On Sunday, the Everett Black Sox Junior American Legion team of Bryant agreed and added, “Why not three?”
And, as it turned out, they won all three and captured the championship of the third annual Ryan White Memorial Tournament at Lakeside High School Field.
Because of all the recent rain, the tourney was reduced from a four-day event to only a little more than a single day. Going into Sunday, just two teams had managed to get a game in. So organizers of the tourney dropped the consolation bracket and made it a single elimination tourney.
Both finalist, the Sox and the Sheridan Yellowjackets were playing their third game of the day and behind the one-hit pitching of right-hander Dylan Hurt, who had caught the previous two games — one in the morning, another in the afternoon — the Black Sox captured the first-place trophy with an 8-0 win in five innings.
Starting the day at 9:30 a.m., the Sox, behind two-hit shutout pitching by right-hander Aaron Orender, ousted Centerpoint 4-0. At 5, they came back and outlasted the White Hall/Pine Bluff Junior team, 8-4, in six innings with lefty Beau Bonvillain closing it out with two shutout innings as Bryant rallied.
“It was a full day,” acknowledged Sox manager Tyler Brown. “I looked over at (assistant coach) Ozzie (Hurt) and (assistant) Coach (Mike) Lee and told them I was ready to go get something to eat.
“But I enjoyed it,” he added. “It’s games we need to get in. Reps, reps and reps — we needed that bad.”
Bryant hammered out 24 hits in the three games, 11 of them in the final.
“The first game I don’t think we really had a good plan, a good approach at the dish,” Brown said. “The second and third game, especially the last game, we came out and we swung it well. That’s what I’d like to see each and every game.
“I think they finally started realizing that these wooden bats, it’s more of a timing thing rather than hitting it on that sweet spot with an aluminum,” he explained. “They started figuring it out, had a good plan and we hit the ball around pretty well. We did a good job of not swinging at bad pitches, taking our walks and also getting the bunts down when we needed them.”
Black Sox 8, Yellowjackets 0
In the championship game, the lone Sheridan hit was a grounder into the hole at short that Connor Tatum got to but Chase Wallingsford beat out. A couple of other Sheridan batters reached on errors and, in the fourth, Hurt issued three consecutive two-out walks but left them stranded by inducing a foul pop that third baseman Alex Shurtleff hauled down to end the inning.
In the fifth, the Jackets’ Tyler Cleveland and Nick Whitley came up with a man at second but each was robbed of hits by fine plays in the outfield by Cameron Coleman and Orender.
Hurt struck out four along the way.
“Dylan’s one of those guys that’s going to go out there and put his nose in the dirt and give us everything he’s got,” Brown stated. “He caught two games already and we’re low on pitching and he was one of our starters we had left. He took the ball and went out there and did what he was supposed to do. He did it very well.”
The Sox scored in each of their four turns at bat. In the bottom of the first, Logan Allen slapped a single to right off Sheridan starter Isaiah Quintanilla. A pair of wild pitches allowed him to reach third as Tatum walked. With one out, Garrett Misenheimer delivered the run with a sacrifice fly.
A one-out walk to Orender in the bottom of the second led to a two-run burst. Shurtleff looped a single to right-center and Diego Vargas beat out a bunt to load the bases. With two down, Tatum came through with a clutch single to center that chased home both Oredner and Shurtleff to make it 3-0.
After Hurt worked around a two-out error in the top of the third, A one-out error on a grounder to third by Misenheimer set up another two-run uprising. Coleman singled Bonvillain (in as a courtesy runner for the catcher) to second then Hurt helped himself with an RBI single to center. Shurtleff plated Coleman by beating out an infield hit, making it 5-0.
In the fourth, Allen greeted Wallingsford, the first Sheridan reliever, with his second hit. With Allen on the move, Tatum was robbed of a hit by Whitley, the Sheridan shortstop, who had no play on Allen but got the out at first. Evan Lee then stepped into a 3-2 pitch and ripped it to deep right-center for an RBI triple.
Misenheimer was struck by a pitch and Bonvillain came back in. He swiped second and, after Coleman walked to load the bases, Hurt’s shot to the right side was stopped with a diving effort by Renner Smith but he couldn’t get away a solid throw to first and Hurt had an RBI single.
Bonvillain scored on a wild pitch as Orender drew a walk and it was 8-0.
Black Sox 8, White Hall 4
The seesaw battle had the Sox trailing 4-3 going into the top of the fifth. Hurt drew a walk to lead off the inning. Vargas came on as a courtesy runner and Orender got a sacrifice bunt down that drew a wild throw from the pitcher. The ball said down the right-field line and Vargas sprinted home all the way from first. Orender wound up at third.
With the game tied 4-4, Shurtleff smacked a grounder to second to get Orender home with the go-ahead tally.
Bonvillain, the third Bryant pitcher, eased through a 1-2-3 home fifth and the Sox proceeded to pad their lead in the top of the sixth. Tatum walked, Lee singled then Misenheimer slashed a base hit past the second baseman to load the sacks. Coleman drew a walk to force in Tatum and force a pitching change.
The new hurler, Chase Bryan unleashed a wild pitch that allowed Lee to score then Orender ripped a 3-2 pitch up the middle for an RBI single to make it 8-4.
Blake Bradshaw singled for White Hall to start the bottom of the sixth and, with one out, Antoine Luster yanked a double into the left-field corner but Bonvillain struck out clean-up hitter Brewer Owen and got Dylan Cantwell to fly to Allen in center to end the game.
The Sox established a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Allen walked, stole second and, after Tatum drew a free pass, Lee singled to load the bases. Misenheimer drew an RBI walk then Coleman bounced into a force at second as Tatum scored.
Bryant only managed five hits in the game but took advantage of 10 walks.
White Hall got one of the runs back in the home first and had the bases loaded with one out but Shurtleff worked out of the jam with a strikeout and a grounder to short. Cantwell had the RBI single.
The Sox were held scoreless in the second thanks to right-fielder Reese Roberts robbing Tatum of a two-out hit with runners at first and second.
White Hall then grabbed its first lead. Roberts singled and, after being forced at second on Jordan Gober’s grounder to Misenheimer at first, Bailey Smith singled. Allen made a nice play to rob Caleb Carr of a hit but Luster was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Owen came through with a two-out, two-run double to make it 3-2.
The Sox tied it in the top of the third when Lee walked, stole second and scored on Misenheimer’s double. Gober, the second White Hall pitcher, escaped further damage by working out of a first-and-third, one-out pickle.
In the bottom of the inning, Gavin Bailey drew a one-out walk and Shurtleff got Roberts to roll one up the middle. But what appeared to be an inning-ending two-ball turned into a single when the ball hit the second-base back and ricocheted into the outfield. Gober doubled to snap the tie then, with runners at second and third with one out, Shurtleff retired Smith and Carr, the top of the White Hall batting order, to keep it from being a bigger inning.
The Sox loaded the bases on walks to Jake East, Tatum and Misenheimer but came up empty in the top of the fourth. In turn, East relieved for Bryant and worked around a pair of walks. The inning ended with an unusual doubleplay. With runners at first and second, Bryan struck out on a ball in the dirt. With first base occupied, Bryan was out but Owen, the lead runner, took off for third and Hurt gunned him down. Misenheimer relayed to first for good measure and it would’ve been in plenty of time to retire Bryan.
That set up the Black Sox’ comeback.
Black Sox 4, Centerpoint 0
Orender struck out eight without a walk and took a no-hitter into the sixth before a one-out single spoiled the gem. A second hit started the seventh but he retired the next three to close out the win. Centerpoint was unable to get two players on base in any inning.
He got the only run he’d need in the second when he himself reached on a two-out error, Shurtleff singled, East walked and Allen stroked a base hit to drive in the run.
The Sox added one in the fourth. Hurt walked ahead of singles by Orender and Shurtleff, loading the bases. East tapped back to the pitcher who got a force at the plate but three pitches later, Allen hit a grounder to second that resulted in a force at second. And when Allen beat the relay to first, Orender crossed the plate.
In the fifth, Misenheimer belted a double. Coleman and Hurt singled to bring him around. Orender singled in Coleman to set the final score.
