Senior Sox clinch regular-season league crown with sweep of Texarkana
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).
Photo courtesy of the Texarkana Gazette
TEXARKANA — For the second time this season, Evan Lee shut out the Texarkana Razorbacks as the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team clinched the regular-season Zone 4 championship and, with it, a first-round bye in the Zone Tournament, which will be back in Texarkana starting this weekend.
The Sox needed just one win to gain the league title and got that with the 12-0 victory in five innings in game one on Monday night. For good measure, they added a 7-5 win in game two, despite a little less intensity and the wear of playing in high 90’s heat at Texarkana’s Joe Blagg Field in Ed Worrell Memorial Park.
The Sox, now 29-6-2 overall, went unbeaten in their eight league games. They were scheduled to play a non-league contest against Cabot tonight but the Cabot cancelled. A replacement game was being sought as a final tune-up before Zone tourney play. Bryant will open Zone play on Saturday at a time to be determined.
Lee had blanked the Razorbacks on two hits on July 5, in the semifinals of the Southwest Illinois Firecracker Classic, 3-0. He finished Monday’s game with a five-hitter. He walked no one and fanned six.
Offensively, Jason Hastings and Logan Allen each had three-hit games. Lee and Trey Breeding added two hits apiece.
Bryant jumped on Texarkana with six runs in the first inning. Drew Tipton singled then Texarkana starter Tripp Evans of Smackover issued walks to Brandan Warner and Blake Patterson. Lee picked up an RBI when he grounded into a force at second. Breeding drove in a run with a single off the glove of first baseman Justin Swecker (Genoa Central).
Hastings beat out an infield hit to load the bases for Allen, who hammered a double over the bag at third, plating two more. Seth Tucker walked then Connor Tatum hit a bouncer to second that resulted in an errant throw allowing Hastings to score.
Tipton capped the uprising off with a sacrifice fly.
Lee worked around a pair of singles in the bottom of the inning, fanning Will Smith (Junction City) and Dylan Sylvy (Pleasant Grove, Texas).
The Sox tacked on in the second when Lee doubled, then came around on two-out knocks by Hastings and Allen.
Swecker beat out an infield hit in the bottom of the inning but was stranded when Breeding, the Bryant catcher, made a nice play on a dribbler in front of the plate off the bat of George Eubanks (Hooks, Texas; SAU).
In the third, Blake Hall (Magnolia) doubled with two out but Lee struck out Smith again to keep it 7-0.
The Sox made it a run-rule game with four runs in the top of the fourth. Patterson and Lee got the outburst started with singles. Breeding reached on an error to load the bags and Hastings singled in a run. Allen added his third hit and third RBI to make it 9-0.
Tucker bounced to third for a force at the plate but Tatum drew an RBI walk and Tipton produced another sacrifice fly to get Allen home.
Texarkana came as close as it would to scoring in the home fourth. Sylvan reached on an error and Nick Myers (Nashville) singled to left. Lee fanned Brandon White (Magnolia) then got Swecker to bounce into a force at second. Lee ended the threat by picking Sylvy off third.
Patterson’s high pop was dropped to start Bryant’s fifth. He was forced out at second on Lee’s grounder but Lee stole second and scored on a single by Breeding to set the final tally.
Eubanks reached on an error to start the bottom of the fifth but the next three Razorbacks were retired to end the contest.
In the second contest, Bryant was designated the home team. Zach Jackson started on the mound for the Sox. Though he allowed three runs over 4 2/3 innings, only one was earned. Bryant committed six errors in the game.
In the opening frame, he hit Hunter Hopkins (Pleasant Grove, Texas) with a pitch but Patterson started a nice 3-6-1 doubleplay then Jackson struck out Hall.
Tipton started the second game as he had the first, cracking a base hit. Warner slapped a single to right to send him to third then stole second to get into scoring position. Texarkana lefty Hunter Lewis unleashed a wild pitch allowing Tipton to score. After Lee walked, Breeding got a squeeze bunt down and Warner scored standing up.
Jackson fanned two around an error in a scoreless second and the Sox tacked on. Allen, who again had three hits, singled, was sacrificed to second by Tucker and, after Tatum walked and Tipton was hit by a pitch, scored on Warner’s grounder to short.
Texarkana got on the board in the top of the third. Swecker and Lewis came up with the Hogs’ first hits of the game. Hopkins, trying to bunt them over, popped up and Breeding jumped out to catch the ball in the air. Swecker had wandered far off second and Breeding rushed a throw there to try to double him off but it was errant.
Myers reached on an error as to load the bases for Hall, who delivered a sacrifice fly. The second run scored on Bryant’s third miscue of the inning. Smith grounded to short and Tucker’s throw was in the dirt.
But with runners at the corners, Jackson and the Sox kept it 3-2 when Sylvy grounded to Tatum at second.
In the fourth, the right-hander worked around a one-out single by White, fanning Swecker and Lewis.
Bryant’s fourth produced three more runs, making it 6-2. Allen singled and Tucker walked. Tatum sacrificed and wound up at first on a bad throw to first. Tipton’s sacrifice fly plated Allen and runners moved up to second and third on an errant throw to the plate.
Tucker would score on a wild pitch just before Warner’s sacrifice fly got Tatum home.
Hopkins started the fifth with a single to left and Myers beat out a hit on a soft bouncer on the infield. Hall stroked a single to right to fill the sacks then Jackson induced a doubleplay grounder to Tucker as Hopkins scored to make it 6-3.
Up to 82 pitches, Jackson was given the rest of the night off. Devin Dupree relieved and got Sylvy to fly to Hastings in right.
Two more Bryant errors helped Texarkana scored two more runs in the top of the sixth. Swecker singled in a run but when he tried to take second on the throw from the outfield, Dupree, backing up homeplate, fired to Tatum who had the ball waiting for him at second.
Lewis made it 6-5 with a sacrifice fly. Another throwing error had Hopkins at second with the potential tying run but Dupree got Myers to fly to Allen in left to preserve the lead.
In the home sixth, the Sox padded the lead. Tatum beat out a bunt single, Tipton sacrificed him to second then, on a pair of wild pitches, he came around to score.
In the seventh, Alex Shurtleff relieved for Bryant and, after surrendering a single to Hall, struck out Smith and Sylvy. The game ended when Jackson Martin bounced to Tucker for a force at second.
