Senior Sox earn berth in State title game with 22-hit barrage vs. 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).
By Rob Patrick
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The Bryant Black Sox will play for the 2009 Senior American Legion State championship on Tuesday, July 28, after out-slugging the Texarkana Razorbacks, 13-8, in the winners bracket final on Sunday night.
In 15 years under the tutelage of Craig and Tic Harrison, it will be the seventh time a Sox team has played in the title round.
Though they will play for the title on Tuesday, the Sox will also play a semifinal game on Monday against Jonesboro in a battle between the last two State champions who both went on to play in the Legion World Series. With a win, Bryant would have to be defeated twice on Tuesday to be denied the title. Should Jonesboro win, the Ricemen would play the survivor of Monday’s other game between Texarkana and Fayetteville Tuesday at 5 with the winner taking on the Sox for the crown at 8.[more]
Any coach will tell you, it’s hard to be a good opponent three times yet, on Sunday, Bryant defeated Texarkana, a Zone 4 rival and one of the four beat teams in the State, for the fourth time this season in as many meetings. The Razorbacks feature seven players who were in college this spring and a roster that boasts players from 11 different high schools. Meanwhile, Bryant has one player that was in college in the spring while every Sox player attended Bryant High School.
“There’s a lot to be said about team vs. nine individuals,” Craig Harrison mentioned. “We have a team and I’m proud of them.”
Bryant bashed a whopping 22 hits, led by Justin Blankenship, Hunter Mayall and Brennan Bullock with four each. By going 4-for-5, Mayall improved his season batting average (unofficially) to a sizzling .506 (40 of 79).
Caleb Garrett added three hits. Tyler Sawyer, Brady Butler and Austin Benning had two each.
The offense supported a patchwork pitching performance. Austin Queck got the start then Ben Wells went three innings and Tyler Sawyer 4 1/3 to pick up his sixth save of the season. It was a gutsy performance by Sawyer after he closed out Saturday’s dramatic 12-11 victory in 10 innings over Fort Smith Kerwins, a game that Wells started.
“Ben gave us a little lift there,” Harrison observed. “And Tyler goes out there and just battles on guts. He’s not throwing 90, he’s not throwing a 12-to-6 (curve), he just goes out there and gives it all he has. He really has a lot of confidence and there’s a lot to be said for having confidence.”
After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first, the Sox scored nine times in the bottom of the inning to take a commanding lead.
“We knew we needed double digits,” Harrison said of the scoring. “I didn’t expect it like that. We nearly got it in the first inning. It became a different game to manage. You go from, ‘We’re going to battle all game,’ to ‘How are we going to hold the lead and piece it together?’ We were just trying to get outs, three at a time, one at a time.
“The guys came out focused,” he added. “We had some really good at-bats in the first inning. They knew it would be a challenge, especially since we were piecing together our pitching against a quality hitting team. It’s tough to beat those guys. And what can you say about the resiliency of our club, to just go out and battle and battle. We got 20 hits. That’s tough to do.”
Texarkana, which only had eight hits but benefitted from six walks, three hit batsmen and a trio of errors, whittled Bryant’s lea
d to 10-7 at one point but Bryant added two in the sixth, another in the seventh and held on for the win.
The Razorbacks broke out on top in the first when Gavan McCauley reached on an error and Trevor Rogers and Will Wagner cracked doubles. But Queck picked off Wagner then got Marc McRae to fly to left to end the inning.
Bryant’s opening salvo began with Blankenship’s first hit. Garrett walked and Sawyer drove in the first run with a hit-and-run single to left, taking second when the throw from the outfield missed its mark. Mayall lashed an RBI single to left and Sawyer scored behind Garrett when the throw from the outfield was errant again.
With Mayall at second, Kaleb Jobe doubled to trade places with him, making it 4-2. Bullock singled and that was it for Texarkana starter Justin Fielden who left without recording an out. Reid Peavy relieved and walked Butler. Benning picked up an RBI on a grounder to short that resulted in a force at second on Butler. With two down, a pickoff throw to first got just far enough away from Wagner, the first baseman, that Bullock was able to race to the plate, just beating the return throw to catcher Colt Galloway.
Blankenship followed with a grounder that ricocheted off Wagner to second baseman Josh Stringfellow. With Peavy covering first, Stringfellow made a throw only to have it get away. With runners at the corners, Garrett singled into the hole at short to make it 7-2. Sawyer then capped off the scoring in the inning with a long double to left-center to chase home two.
Texarkana scored another unearned run in the top of the second and had the bases loaded with two down when the Harrisons called on Wells, who had pitched 3 1/3 innings on Sunday night. He needed just one pitch to get the third out of the inning on a grounder to short off Stringfellow’s bat.
Wells would work around a lead-off walk in the third, fanning a pair. He retired the first two in the fourth then, after surrendering a single to Michael Milum, began to struggle with his control. A hit batsman, a walk, another hit batsman and a two-run single by Wagner had the margin whittled to 10-6. McRae smacked a hard one-hopper back to Wells, however, and he threw to first to end the inning.
Wells again retired the first two in the fifth but, after issuing a walk to Galloway, gave way to Sawyer, who got the third out.
Bryant, meanwhile, tacked on a run in the second when Bullock beat out an infield hit, advanced to second on a balk, to third on a single by Benning and scored on a wild pitch unleashed by the third Texarkana hurler Ethan Crocker.
Crocker settled in after that and worked three scoreless innings as his teammates battled back. When a pair of walks, a double steal and a sacrifice fly produced another run for Texarkana in the sixth, it was 10-7 going into the bottom of the sixth.
Bryant produced a little more breathing run in its turn in the sixth. With one out, Bullock singled. He raced all the way home on a double by Butler. Benning singled and Butler scored when B.J. Ellis bounced into a force, just beating the relay which could’ve ended the inning without the run scoring.
Sawyer gave up a single to Kenny Spencer to start the seventh but fanned the next two and ended the inning with a groundout.
In the bottom of the inning, Garrett singled to chase Crocker in favor of McRae. Garrett, nevertheless, took second on an errant attempt at a force out on Sawyer’s grounder to short. Mayall singled to load the bases but Jobe bounced into a force at home. With one down, Texarkana played back for the doubleplay and they got the grounder they wanted from Bullock only to have him beat the relay to first as Sawyer scored, making it 13-7.
Sawyer retired the side in order in the eighth but Texarkana didn’t go quietly in the ninth. With one down, McRae singled, Spencer beat out an infield hit and, with one out, an errant throw allowed Galloway to reach and McRae to score. With runners at second and third, however, Sawyer struck out Ian Underwood to end the game.
Looking ahead, Harrison said, “We’ll come out here tomorrow and we’ll throw some of our younger guys. Obviously, we’re going to try to win but we’re not going to burn (ace lefty) Trent (Daniel). Saw will get an extra day to rest. We’ll get Ben some rest.”
BRYANT 13, TEXARKANA 8
Senior American Legion State Tournament
Razorbacks ab r h bi Black Sox ab r h bi
McCauley, cf 2 3 1 0 Blankenship, rf 6 2 4 0
Rogers, rf 2 2 1 1 Garrett, cf 5 2 3 1
Stringfellow, 2b 4 0 0 1 Sawyer, ss-p 5 2 2 3
Wagner, 1b 3 0 2 5 Mayall, 3b 5 1 4 1
McRae, 3b-p 5 1 1 0 Jobe, dh-ss 5 1 1 1
Spencer, lf 4 0 2 0 Bullock, lf 5 3 4 1
Nava, ss 5 1 0 0 Butler, 1b 4 1 2 1
Galloway, c 3 0 0 0 Benning, 2b 4 1 2 1
Milum, dh 4 1 1 0 Ellis, c 5 0 0 1
Underwood, 3b 1 0 0 0 Queck, p 0 0 0 0
Fielden, p 0 0 0 0 Wells, p 0 0 0 0
Peavy, p 0 0 0 0
Crocker, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 35 8 8 7 Totals 44 13 22 10
Texarkana 210 301 001 — 8
BRYANT 910 002 10x — 13
E—Benning, Spencer, McCauley, Wagner, Stringfellow, Mayall 2. LOB—Texarkana 10, Bryant 11. 2B—Rogers, Wagner, Jobe, Sawyer, Butler. SB—Blankenship 2, McCauley, Rogers, Bullock. SF—Wagner.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Texarkana
Fielden (L) 0 6 4 5 1 0
Peavy 1.1 4 4 6 1 1
Crocker 3.2 2 2 9 0 1
McRae 2 0 0 2 1 2
Bryant
Queck 1.2 3 1 3 1 1
Wells (W) 3 3 3 2 3 3
Sawyer, (S) 4.1 2 1 3 2 5
Balk—Peavy. HBP—Galloway (by Queck), McCauley, Stringfellow (by Wells). WP—Peavy 2.
