Junior Sox take advantage of opportunities to clip Benton Sports Shop
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting 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).
How do you make four hits work for you?
Couple them with six walks, a couple of errors, a pair of hit batsmen and time them just right.
Though the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team (17) was limited to just four singles, they used that formula to earn a 6-4 win over the Benton Sports Shop Junior team on Tuesday night at Bryant High School Field.
Benton just had six hits and the Sox committed four errors and, though their trio of pitchers walked no one, they hit four batters. And some of those hits were well timed but no enough to overcome the Sox.
Bryant is set to play at Cabot tonight then travels to Memphis for The Hagan, The Keith Hagan Memorial All-American Classic starting Friday.
Zion Collins, Noah Davis, Aaron Morgan and Tyler Bates had Bryant’s hits on Tuesday. One (Collins’) of them started a four-run uprising, the others each drove in runs.
Meanwhile, Bates, Collins and Blaine Sears handled the pitching duties. Collins picked up the win by going two innings in which he didn’t allow a hit, though his pitches hit a trio of Sports Shop batters.
The Sox spotted Benton a run in the first. Keaton Collatt led off the game with a single, stole second, advanced to third when Tristan Hawkins reached on an error then scored on Jaden Woodbright’s infield hit.
Blake Ferrell sacrificed to get Woodbright to move runners up, but Bates struck out Dalton Pugh to end the inning with runners at second and third.
In the home half, Collins smacked a one-out single to center then Woodbright, the hard-throwing Benton starter, issued walks to Davis and Garrett Wilson to load the bases. Will Hathcote followed with a roller to short. Benton got the force at second but had no play anywhere else as Collins scored to tie it 1-1.
Davis scored on a wild pitch after Slade Renfrow walked then Sears earned a free pass to load the bases.
Woolbright gave way to Caleb Sollars who came on to face Austin Morgan. They battled to a 3-2 count before Morgan drilled a single down the left-field line to drive in two, making it 4-1.
Bates worked around a two-out single by Braden Pate in the second and, in turn, the Sox tacked on a run.
Ryan Riggs walked, and courtesy runner Lawson Speer took second on a passed ball. With one out, Davis lined a single to left to chase home the run. The ball was misplayed in left then Davis stole third, but he was stranded as Sollars escaped by fanning the next two batters.
Collins relieved for Bryant in the top of the third and, with one out, he hit Hawkins. An errant pickoff throw allowed him to go to second. Woolbright was plunked too but, with Ferrell at the plate, Riggs, the Bryant catcher, threw Hawkins out as he tried to steal third.
Ferrell wound up being struck by a pitch, moving Woolbright to second. But Collins ended the inning by picking him off.
In the fourth, an error allowed Pugh to reach but Collins retired the next three, two with strikeouts. In the meantime, however, Pugh stole second, took third on an errant throw then scored on a balk to make it 5-2.
The Sox put a pair of runners on in the third but didn’t score then Sollars pitched around a hit batsman with two out in the fourth.
In the top of the fifth, Sears snagged a liner back to the box off the bat of Collatt. Tyler LaRue followed with a single to right then both Hawkins and Woolbright mashed doubles as Benton trimmed the lead to 5-4.
With the tying run at second and one out, Sears got Ferrell to ground out to Wilson at third and, after he hit Pugh with a 3-1 pitch, he got a big help from Bates in center. Sollars hit a bloop into shallow left-center but Bates raced in and hauled it in with a lunge to end the inning.
Before the time limit expired in the home fifth, Sears walked, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Bates’ two-out single to right.
