Colby Morrow had a day.
The Bryant Black Sox’ first baseman cracked five hits and drove in six over the two Senior American Legion victories the team posted Tuesday night at Bryant High School Field.
The Sox jumped to a 7-0 lead over the first two innings on the way to a 9-5 win over defending State champs Fort Smith Sportsman then piled up an 11-0 lead in the first inning on the way to a 20-3 romp over the Sheridan Yellowjackets in the night cap.
(in between, Fort Smith downed Sheridan 11-0.)
In the opener, Morrow had two hits and two knocked in by the end of the second inning. Ryan Riggs had three hits and drove in two. Logan White added two knocks. Blaine Sears pitched three scoreless innings of relief behind Will Hathcote and Tyler Bates.
In the second game, Morrow had three hits and four runs batted in. Conner Martin, Lawson Speer and Logan White each had two hits with Speer driving home five. Brandon Thomisee, Hayden Thompson and Drew Hatman combined on a one-hit shutout with the lone Sheridan hit coming in the fourth inning of the four-inning game.
The win improved the Sox to 16-7 this season going into tonight’s trip to Russellville.
Bryant 9, Fort Smith 5
Bryant scored three times in the first after Hathcote had pitched around a hit batsman and an infield hit in the top of the inning. Speer’s double started the inning. White’s bloop to right fell in for a hit as Speer held at second just in case the ball was caught. But Riggs got a perfect bunt down and the bases were loaded.
Speer scored on a wild pitch and, with one-out, Morrow doubled in the other two with a long drive to the base of the wall in center.
In the second, Sears was plunked by a pitch with one out and Speer drew a walk. As White was waiting out a free pass, a pair of wild pitches brought Sears around. With runners at first and third, Fort Smith starter Steffan Fak balked, allowing Speer to score.
With two down, Conner Martin pulled a single to left to plate White. Morrow’s second hit was a grounder into right. Ethan Andrews capped the scoring with an RBI single to left center.
Down 7-0, Fort Smith took advantage of a one-out error to plate four runs. The first of Tanner Callahan’s three doubles in the game drove in two then, with two out and on an 0-2 pitch, Eli Reichert singled in two more to make it 7-4.
Bates, who got the final out of the third, gave up an unearned run in the fourth. A one-out error allowed Hayden Roark to get to second and, with two out, Callahan’s second double plated the run.
Fort Smith had turned a nifty 3-6-3 doubleplay in the third to erase a one-out walk to Sears. In the bottom of the fourth, Riggs stroked a one-out double to left and, with two down, Morrow was hit by a pitch. But reliever Kent Carlisle got the third out without allowing a run.
Sears took over on the mound in the fifth and retired the side in order with two strikeouts. In the bottom of the inning, the Sox added some insurance when Carlisle walked Luke Dreher and Hatman. Sears sacrificed them to second and third then, with two down, White singled in a run and Riggs singled in another to set the final score.
Sears pitched around a two-out error in the top of the sixth then worked around Callahan’s third two-bagger to close it out in the seventh.
Bryant 20, Sheridan 3
Technically, this was an 18-3 win as the Sox put the 15-after-3 run rule in effect when White scored the first run on Cade Parker’s three-run walk-off double.
Thomisee pitched two perfect innings then Thompson pitched around a two-out walk in the third, striking out the side.
Bryant took advantage of 12 walks, three hit batsmen and three errors with 12 hits. Six of the walks, two of the hit batsmen and two of the errors came in that 11-run first.
A bad-hop single by Martin drove in the first run. After four consecutive walks produced three more runs, Sears made it 5-0 with a sacrifice fly to right.
With two out, Riggs singled in a run. Noah Davis was hit by a pitch for the second time in the inning and Sheridan finally made a pitching change after starter Beau Kuttenkuler threw his 46th pitch of the inning.
The new hurler, Landon Kizer, walked Martin to force in a run then Morrow clubbed a double to left to clear the bases. Speer singled him in, and it was 11-0.
Kizer retired the side in order in the second but, in the third, Martin started an uprising with a two-out infield hit. Morrow singled then Speer stroked a long double that enabled both of them to score. White’s RBI single made it 14-0.
The Sox came close to ending it there as Andrews and Sears walked to load the bags again, but Kizer got Parker to ground into a force at third to end the inning.
Hatman took the mound in the top of the fourth and surrendered singles to Jackson Sorey, Lawson Guthrie and Evan Ward with one out. An errant throw to the plate allowed a run to score on War’s hit. Caleb Patrick made it 14-2 with a sacrifice fly then an errant throw to first on a grounder to second allowed the third run to score. Hatman got the final out on a comebacker.
So, the Sox “had to” bat one more time and proceeded to get to the run rule anyway. The bottom of the fourth began with walks to Riggs and Davis. With one out, Morrow singled in Riggs. With two down, White and Andrews each smacked RBI singles to make it 17-3. Sears was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Parker, who plugged the gap in left-center for the game-ending double.
