Short-handed Bryant sweeps McGehee
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McGEHEE — Despite the fact that several players were back in Bryant participating in the final scrimmage of spring football, the Black Sox AAA American Legion team traveled to McGehee and swept a twinbill, 11-0 and 5-2.
Bryant pitchers allowed just three hits in the two games, which both went five innings. In the opener, Matt Lewis shut out McGehee on two hits, both infield singles. He struck out nine without a walk but he hit two batters and wound up facing two over the minimum.
Offensively, Chris Sory went 4-for-4 and Dustin Morris had three hits. Matt Brown, playing centerfield for the first time this season, drove in four runs with a pair of hits and Cody Graddy hit his second home run of the season.
Graddy’s blast was a two-run shot in the first. Sory had led off with a single and Morris had reached base on an error. A passed ball moved them to second and third. Brown picked up his first ribbie with a sacrifice fly. An out later, Graddy unloaded on a curveball to make it 3-0.
In the second, Scott Yant drew a one-out walk and Sory singled. Morris doubled in a run then Brown singled in another. An errant pickoff throw allowed Morris to score, making it 6-0.
It stayed that way through the third when a lead-off single by Lewis didn’t lead to anything and the fourth when hits by Sory and Morris and a pitch that hit Beau Hamblin loaded the bases to no result.
Lewis, who needed just 57 pitches — 47 of them strikes — to dispose of McGehee, gave up a one-out infield hit in the second then a lead-off scratch hit in the fourth. But none of the McGehee baserunners made it past first and two of them were thrown out trying to steal by Graddy.
The Sox put the finishing touches on the rout in the fifth. One out walks to Derek Chambers and Yant set the table. Sory and Morris each singled in a run then Brown’s base hit plated a pair. Hamblin and Graddy followed with base hits as Brown came around to the 11th run.
In the bottom of the fifth, Lewis came within a strike of ending the game but hit a batter. That proved academic, however, when he fanned the next one on three straight deliveries.
In the second game, Sory and Hamblin combined on a one-hitter. The lone safety was a lead-off homer in the third inning.
Sory pitched four innings, struck out seven and walked three. Hamblin pitched the fifth and picked up a save. He walked a man but Graddy picked him off for the final out of the game.
McGehee actually held a lead in the game, though. In the bottom of the first an error, a pair of wild pitches and a wild throw allowed a run to score.
The lead didn’t last long through. In the top of the second, consecutive singles by Graddy, Lewis, Jordan Davis and Chambers produced a pair of runs.
After Sory fanned a pair in a 1-2-3 second, the Sox put together the decisive rally in the top of the third beginning with a one-out double by Morris who took third when the ball was misplayed in left then scored on a second error. Brown doubled, Hamblin singled and Graddy drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Hamblin then made it 5-1 when he was able to score on a passed ball.
After the lead-off homer in the bottom of the inning, Sory fanned a pair around a walk then induced a tap back to the mound. He issued a two-out walk in the fourth but to no ill-effect.
It was Sory’s second win of the season and improved the Black Sox record to 7-0.
