By Rob Patrick
SHERIDAN — Sure, it would've been nice to win the District tournament championship. It probably would've meant a little better seed as the State tournament, maybe a marginally lesser opponent in the first round. They'd have gone into it on a more positive note but as far as winning the tournament — really, the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team has bigger fish to fry.
So do the Sheridan Yellowjackets, of course. And if the two teams meet again, it will be on a bigger stage. Sheridan hosts the State tourney beginning Friday and, with an 11-1 win over Bryant in the winner-take-all final of the District, the top seed from Zone 4 will belong to the Jackets. Bryant will be seeded second from the Zone and Little Rock Continental Express will be slotted in where the Host team would be.
The brackets for the tournament are forthcoming.[more]
It was a frustrating night for the Sox who had defeated Sheridan in the winners bracket final on Sunday. Sheridan came back to win the losers bracket final over Continental then force the "if" game with a 6-3 win against Bryant on Monday.
The Sox were not sharp Tuesday. In a way, the game kind of reflected the somewhat odd rivalry between the sports teams from the two towns. Generally speaking, they don't really have much regard for each other. In fact, Bryant teams often have little regard for Sheridan teams. In the pecking order of Bryant rivals, Sheridan usually doesn't produce much intensity. And that actually fuels Sheridan's disregard for Bryant and a perception of arrogance. Sheridan relishes beating Bryant like few other foes, as they see it, to knock them down a notch.
And on Tuesday, the energy all seemed to be in the Sheridan dugout. Bryant made some early mistakes that shouted, "Lack of intensity" — a fact that exasperated Sox manager Brad Chism.
"It was a championship game and we were just flat," he observed after the game.
Again, another year of maturity and experience may have been a factor. All but two of Sheridan's players are 17-year-olds. All but one of Bryant's are 16.
Offensively, the Sox were shackled by right-hander Cody Clemons. It was actually a battle of catchers on the mound. Clemons had caught all of Sheridan's previous games and Bryant's Dylan Pritchett had done so for his team.
Clemons allowed just one baserunner over the first three innings. Landon Pickett reached on an error with one out in the second inning but was erased by a doubleplay. The Sox seemed to struggle to be patient and they couldn't lay off Clemons' high fastball. Six of the first 10 outs (and 11 of the 18 in the game) were recorded on pop-ups or flyballs, all when the Bryant batter was even or ahead in the count.
Clemons walked two, hit a batter and fanned a pair.
Pritchett, meanwhile, had little go his way at the start and piled up pitches early. In the first, Landon Moore, who was 3-for-3 in the game, singled and Cameron Holland walked. A base hit by Sawyer Dunigan made it 1-0.
But that was no big deal. In fact, the Sox had fallen behind 3-0 against Hope in the tourney opener and then again in the game in which they defeated Sheridan.
When Dunigan made a delayed steal of second, however, no one covered the bag for the Sox and Pickett's throw got through allowing Holland to score. Dunigan advanced on to third. With one out, Tyler Lathan was hit by a pitch. Pritchett came back to strike out Kurt Stamper but, thinking it was the third out, Pickett rolled the ball out toward the mound and, before Pritchett could scramble after it and throw home, Dunigan scored to make it 3-0.
Pritchett struck out Zach Perkins to end the inning with only one of the three runs earned.
In the second, he worked around a pair of singles but, in the third, Clemons walked then Lathan, Stamper and Perkins each singled in succession to get a run in and load the bases. Pritchett came back to strike out Brandon Rieve but his next pitch to Nick Ware was lined into left for an RBI single. Ware was 3-for-4 on the night. Moore lifted a fly deep down the right-field line that Caleb Milam sprinted into foul territory to haul in at his shoe-tops to get the second out in spectacular fashion, but Stamper tagged and scored to make it 6-0.
Through three innings, Pritchett's pitch count had already reached 82.
The Sox got their first hit in the top of the fourth when, with one out, Lucas Castleberry plugged the gap in right-center for a triple. He was unable to score on a short fly to center but, with two down, Pickett was hit by a pitch and Evan Jobe drew a walk to load the bases. Adding to Bryant's frustration, Tyler Brown ripped a liner to right-center only to have Lathan race over and grab it to retire the side.
In the fifth, Caleb Milam pulled a one-out double inside the bag at third but the Sox couldn't get him beyond second.
The bottom of the fifth began with a sparkling play at third by Brodie Nixon, who was solid and often spectacular there the whole tournament. A walk to Rieve was followed by Pritchett's fifth strikeout. But the third out proved tough to get. Moore singled and Holland walked to load the bases and, on a 2-1 count, Dunigan hit a bouncer between third and short. Nixon tried to cut it off but couldn't get there and Castleberry, the shortstop, screened from the ball, couldn't handle it cleanly. Even if he had, it would've been tough to get an out as Rieve scored to make it 7-0.
Clemons followed with a single to left, plating two more.
With the game-ending run at third, Pritchett got Lathan to fly out to center, giving the Sox a chance to bat at least one more time in hopes of getting something going.
Castleberry reached on a third-strike wild pitch to open the top of the sixth and, with one out, Pickett lined a single to right. Jobe walked to load the bases and, with two down, Nixon drove a single up the middle to break up the shutout.
That's all the Sox could get though and when Sheridan scored twice in the sixth, despite a pitching change, the Yellowjackets had the championship.
It was the kind of game a team might want to analyze, learn from and otherwise forget. It's the first time since mid-June that Bryant, 17-10-1, has suffered back-to-back losses. But the Sox get a fresh start on Friday.
SHERIDAN 11, BRYANT 1
Junior American Legion
Zone 4 tournament
Black Sox ab r h bi Yellowjackets ab r h bi
Joiner, cf 3 0 0 0 Moore, cf 3 2 3 1
Castleberry, ss 3 1 1 0 Holland, 3b 1 2 0 0
Pritchett, p 3 0 0 0 Dunigan, ss 4 1 1 2
Pickett, c 2 0 1 0 Clemons, p 3 1 1 2
Jobe, lf 1 0 0 0 Lathan, rf 3 1 1 0
Brown, 2b 3 0 0 0 Stamper, lf 3 2 1 1
Nixon, 3b 3 0 1 1 Perkins, 2b 4 0 1 0
Milam, rf 3 0 1 0 Rieve, 1b 2 1 0 0
Davidson, 1b 2 0 0 0 Stoops, ph 1 1 1 1
Ware, c 4 0 3 2
Totals 23 1 4 1 Totals 28 11 12 9
E—Pickett 2, Dunigan, Rieve, Brown. DP—Bryant 1, Sheridan 1. LOB—Bryant 7, Sheridan 9. 2B—Milam, Stoops. 3B—Castleberry. SB—Dunigan, Clemons. SF—Moore.
BRYANT 000 001 — 1
Sheridan 303 032 — 11
One out when game-ending run scored.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Bryant
Pritchett (L) 5 10 8 10 4 5
Neal 0.1 1 1 2 0 0
Sheridan
Clemons (W) 6 1 1 4 2 2
HBP—Lathan, Holland (by Pritchett), Pickett (by Clemons). WP—Pritchett, Clemons.
