A pair of close games got away from the Bryant Sport Shop Black Sox AA American Legion team on Monday night at Bryant High School field. Morrilton Legion Post 39 put together a five-run fifth to break up a scoreless duel in the first game, on the way to an 8-5 win. In the second contest, Morrilton led 3-2 through four frames but erupted for seven runs in the top of the fifth to turn it into a 10-2 victory in a five-inning game.
The losses snapped a three-game winning streak for the Sox as their record dropped the 4-3. They’re set to play in the Peoples Bank Wood Bat Classic in Sheridan starting Wednesday at 8 p.m., against White Hall. They’re set to play Sheridan on Thursday at 8 and Beebe on Saturday at 8 p.m., in pool play.
In the first of Monday’s two games, Bryant right-hander Brandon Hoover and Morrilton lefty Ryan Andrews were locked in a scoreless duel. In fact, Hoover was holding Morrilton without a hit with the help of some sparkling defense from Grayson Prince in left, Joey Cates at short and Christian Harp at third. Hoover walked three and hit three batters but the Sox turned a pair of doubleplays along the way.
But the right-hander appeared to run out of gas in the fifth. He hit Morrilton’s Reggie Toney and, after getting Caleb Canady on a comebacker and fanning Andrews, plunked Trent Tindell with a 3-1 pitch.
Hoover looked to the dugout and manager Hunter Mayall took him out. And Morrilton’s bats came to life. With five consecutive singles, Post 39 scored five times.
Meanwhile, Andrews was blanking the Sox, who threatened in the first two innings. In the opening frame, Caleb Chaffin and Harp had two-out singles. In the second, Daniel Darbonne slapped a one-out single to left and Prince walked but both were stranded.
In response to Morrilton’s uprising, however, Sport Shop got to Andrews for a pair of runs. After Alex Thompson was robbed of a hit by second baseman Joe Beck, Cates drew a walk. On a pick-off play, Cates took off for second and when first baseman Jace Hill threw errantly, he wound up at third. He would score on a wild pitch.
Hunter Oglesby’s bloop single was followed by Chaffin’s second knock. Harp followed with a grounder to third. Toney fielded the ball and threw to second for a force as Oglesby took third. Harp beat the relay to first and, running all the way, Oglesby scored ahead of the relay to the plate to make it 5-2.
Morrilton added an unearned run in the top of the sixth but the Sox got it back in the home half. Jordan Gentry and Darbonne drew walks from reliever Luke Zimmerman. On a series of wild pitches, Gentry wound up scoring. Zimmerman fanned the next two but issued a walk to Cates who took off to steal second on the first pitch to Oglesby. On the throw, Darbonne started towards home but Zimmerman cut the ball off at the mound and Morrilton executed the rundown for the third out.
Two more runs scored for Morrilton in the top of the seventh so the Black Sox trailed 8-3 going into the bottom of the final inning.
They did not go quietly. Oglesby led off with a single and Chaffin drew a walk. Harp was retired on a foul ball down the right-field line that Zimmerman hauled in with a basket catch running away from the infield.
Matthew Sandidge followed with a shot that Hill, the fourth Morrilton pitcher, got a glove on, preventing it from going into centerfield. Second baseman Joe Beck tracked it down and threw just in time for the out at first.
With runners at second and third, Gentry found the corner in left and legged out a triple, making it 8-5. But Hill got the final out to preserve the win.
In the second game, Morrilton grabbed a 3-0 lead with a run in the first and two in the second. A pair of errors contributed to the second-inning production. After that, Ethan Thompson threw a scoreless third with the help of a doubleplay. In the fourth, Diego Vargas worked around a one-out walk to keep Morrilton off the board.
In the meantime, the Sox plated two in the third. Myers Buck beat out an infield single then Darbonne flared a base hit to left. After a passed ball moved them up to second and third, Cates picked up an RBI with a groundout. With two down, Gentry burned the center fielder for an RBI triple but, representing the tying run, he wound being stranded.
It stayed 3-2 until the fifth when Morrilton took advantage of three walks and an error with six hits including doubles by Toney, Zimmerman and Joe Beck to score seven times.
In the home half, Darbonne drew a lead-off walk and Gentry reached on an error but Beck ended the game with a strikeout.
