Junior Sox hold on for opening victory at District
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting 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
SHERIDAN — The Hope Wildcats were good at the start and at the end but, in between, it was all Bryant Black Sox at the Junior American Legion District tournament at Sheridan on Friday.
The Sox out-scored the Wildcats 12-7 to advance in the winners bracket of the tournament which will eventually send three teams to the State tournament which will also be held in Sheridan.
Bryant plays Little Rock Continental Express on Saturday at 11 a.m. A win will put them in the winner’s bracket finals on Sunday. A loss would force them to come back and play Saturday afternoon in an elimination game.
On Friday, Dylan Pritchett banged out three hits while Landon Pickett and Evan Jobe each drove in three for the Sox in support of right-hander Matt Neal, who went the distance on the mound on a hot, humid day.[more]
Bryant found itself trailing 3-0 after the first inning. Hope scored the first run when Tyler Downs followed a single by Clayton Rowe and a walk to Taylor Wood with a double down the left-field line. Neal struck out the next batter then hit Davis Wilson with a pitch to load the bases for Chris Pine. He got in a second strike on Pine on a pitch in the dirt that deflected away from Pritchett, the catcher, who pounced on the loose ball as Wood raced for the plate. What would’ve been a close play turned into trouble when Pritchett’s throw back to Neal, who was covering the plate, got by and rolled into the third-base dugout, allowing Downs to score as well, making it 3-0.
Neal went ahead and struck out Pine on the next pitch to keep it at that.
But, in the bottom of the inning, the Sox went down in order, thanks in part to Wilson, the Hope center fielder, who raced into the gap to rob Lucas Castleberry of an extra base hit.
In the top of the second, Neal worked around a one-out walk and a single and manager Brad Chism and coach Dustin Tinkler gathered their players in a huddle as they came off the field.
When asked what he told them, Chism related, “No time to press right now. Anything can happen. I know our sticks are going to come around. We’re going to give up some runs but, as long as we battle back, we’ve hit the ball all year, we’ll be in this game. It’s going to take more than three runs to beat us. If we keep them close, where they were, in the end we’ll be all right.”
And that’s just what happened. Neal followed the shutout second with scoreless work in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth despite allowing the lead-off batter to reach in each of those frames. In the third, Downs singled and was sacrificed to second but Neal got Wilson to tap back to the mound then Pine to fly to Jobe in right.
In the fourth, Zack Winfield led off with a single but, with one out, lead-off batter Josh Worthy hit a liner that third baseman Brodie Nixon leapt up and speared, throwing to first to double up Winfield.
In the fifth, Neal hit Rowe with a pitch but Pritchett gunned him down trying to steal and, with two down, Chris Joiner, in center, robbed Downs of an extra-base hit.
The sixth started with a double by Dillon Gore but, again, he was stranded and Neal induced a pop up to Tyler Brown at second, a groundout to Nixon and finished the inning with a strikeout of Winfield.
“We were telling him to get on top early in the count and that way we don’t have to work from behind but he always seemed to let the first batter get on,” Chism said. “But he always seems to get out of it. I guess that’s the way he becomes a better pitcher. He gets somebody on and he bears down. But that’s hard when you get guys on and you’re working from behind. Batters see a lot of fastballs and things like that.
“But he did a good job. He went the whole game for us and that’s what I wanted to see out of our first game starter. If we could get a guy to go the whole game, that puts us in a good position for the rest of the tournament.”
In the meantime, the Sox got the bats going. After the huddle before the bottom of the second, Pickett and Caleb Milam patiently drew walks from Hope starter Hunter Halliday. Jobe got down 0-2 in the count but then stroked a shot to the gap in left-center that got down for an RBI double. Milam scored on Brown’s grounder to the right side and the lead was cut to 3-2, though Jobe was stranded at third.
In the bottom of the third, however, Joiner, Castleberry and Pritchett each singled on consecutive delveries from Halliday. Castleberry’s shot to right was misplayed allowing Joiner to reach third as he sprinted to second. Pritchett knocked in the tying run. And when Pritchett stole second, drawing a throw that was mishandled, Castleberry was able to score to put the Sox ahead. Pritchett, who went on to third, came home moments later on a sacrifice fly by Pickett, making it 5-3.
Buoyed by Nixon’s sparkling play to end the top of the fourth, the Sox added on thanks to some miscues by the Wildcats. Tyler Gattin reached on an error and, two outs later, so did Castleberry. Pritchett singled to load the bases for Pickett who delivered a two-run single down the right-field line. Milam, who was on base all four times he came to the plate, was hit by a pitch and Jobe followed with an RBI single to make it 8-3.
The Sox appeared to put the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth. Castleberry singled to center and scored all the way from first on Pritchett’s double down the left-field line. Pickett and Milam drew walks to load the bags for Jobe who picked up his third RBI with a grounder to short that went for a force at second. A wild pitch allowed Pickett to score and, after Brown’s grounder to short drew a bad throw sending Jobe to third, another wild pitch brought him in to make it 12-3.
Brown, who advanced to third the play, represented the game-ending run but, after a pitching change, he wound up being stranded and the seventh inning had to be played.
And, though it started out fine, it got a little more exciting than the Sox would’ve wanted. Worthy singled with one out but, on a nice play by Castleberry from deep short, he was forced out on a grounder by Rowe. One out away from the end of the game, Wood beat out a single in the hole, drawing a wild throw that put runners at second and third. Downs walked to load the bases then Gore blooped one to shallow right that just evaded the glove of the diving Jobe. The double cleared the bases, making it 12-6. An error on a grounder by Wilson allowed Gore to score. Wilson stole second but, on his 101st pitch, Neal got Pine to fly out to Joiner in center to end the game.
BRYANT BLACK SOX 12, HOPE WILDCATS 7
JUNIOR AMERICAN LEGION
Wildcats ab r h bi Black Sox ab r h bi
Worthy, lf-cf 4 0 2 0 Joiner, cf 4 1 1 0
Row, 2b-p 3 2 1 0 Castleberry, ss 4 3 1 0
Wood, ss 3 2 1 0 Pritchett, c 4 3 3 2
Downs, c 3 2 2 1 Pickett, 1b 1 2 1 3
Gore, 1b-p-lf 3 1 2 3 Milam, lf 0 1 0 0
Wilson, cf 3 0 0 0 Jobe, rf 4 1 2 3
Pine, 3b 4 0 0 0 Brown, 2b 4 0 0 1
Winfield, dh-1b 3 0 1 0 Gattin, dh 4 1 0 0
Tippitt, rf 2 0 0 0 Nixon, 3b 4 0 1 0
Halliday, p 0 0 0 0 Neal, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 28 7 9 4 Totals 29 12 9 9
Hope 300 000 4 — 7
BRYANT 023 304 x — 12
E—Pritchett, Tippitt, Rowe 2, Pine, Wood, Castleberry 2. DP—Bryant 1. LOB—Hope 7, Bryant 6. 2B—Downs, Jobe, Gore 2, Pritchett. SB—Pritchett, Wilson. S—Gore. SF—Pickett.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Hope
Halliday (L) 4 8 4 7 3 4
Gore 1.1 4 3 2 2 0
Rowe 0.2 0 0 0 0 0
Bryant
Neal (W) 7 7 5 9 3 5
HBP—Wilson, Rowe (by Neal), Milam (by Halliday). WP—Gore 2. PB—Downs.
