Senior Sox go 4-0 at Red Wolves Showcase over the weekend
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JONESBORO — The Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team stayed undefeated with a 4-0 run through the Red Wolves Showcase over the weekend. The Sox dismissed the Shockers of Hernando, Miss., 13-3, and Strikes of Commerce, Texas, 10-0, on Saturday. On Sunday, they topped Benton High School’s summer team, 4-2, and the Jonesboro Ricemen Legion team, 3-1.
Bryant was set to host Russellville in a doubleheader on Monday before traveling to the 19-and-under Battle of Omaha Classic in Nebraska, held in conjunction with the College World Series, starting on Thursday with a game against a team from Boise, Idaho.
Bryant 13, Hernando, Miss. 3
The Sox led 5-3 after both teams scored in the fourth. An eight-run home fifth made it a run-rule win for Bryant.
Harrison Dale pitched the first four innings to get the win. Justin Emmerling finished up with a scoreless fifth.
The game-breaking fifth began with a walked to Drew Tipton. Chase Tucker singled to left then both rolled home when Hayden Lessenberry belted a double. Blake Patterson singled him in to make it 8-3.
After Patterson stole second, Austin Caldwell walked. A wild pitch moved the runners up to second and third. Brandan Warner walked to load the bases for C.J. Phillips, who shot a single up the middle to plate two.
Trevor Ezell doubled to right to drive in a run then Tucker added an infield hit with two down loading the sacks again for Lessenberry. He belted his second run-scoring double of the inning to end the game.
The Sox took a 1-0 lead in the first. Ezell doubled, stole second and, after a two-out walk to Lessenberry, scampered home when Lessenberry left first early and got in a rundown.
The Shockers tied it in the second with a hit batsman, a single, a force at second and an error. They took the lead with a run in the third. Three straight hitters were struck by pitches with two out then an infield hit brought home the run. But Dale ended the inning with a strikeout.
Bryant regained the lead in the bottom of the third. Korey Thopson doubled to left-center, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Ezell’s sacrifice fly. Tipton walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored when Lessenberry’s two-out grounder to second was kicked.
Using a pair of walks, a bunt singled and another hit batsman, the Shockers tied it in the top of the fourth but it didn’t stay that way long. In the home half, Dalton Holt walked. Caldwell came in as a pinch-runner and when Warner’s grounder to short was misplayed, the table was set for Phillips sacrifice bunt on the squeeze play. Thompson walked then Ezell lifted his second sacrifice fly to right to make it 5-3.
Bryant 10, Commerce, Texas 0
Patterson pitched a one-hit shutout in the five-inning win. He fanned five without a walk. The lone base-runner came on the lone hit, a single with two down in the second. The runner advanced on a wild pitch but then Patterson picked him off to end the inning. He retired the last nine in a row.
The Sox were held scoreless until Ezell blasted a solo homer with one out in the third. Tipton followed up with a single, advancing to second when the ball was misplayed in the outfield. Patterson doubled him home then scored on Tucker’s two-out triple on a drive inside the line in left.
The onslaught continued in the fourth when Caldwell walked, Thompson singled and Ezell drove in a run with a tap to first. Tipton walked then he and Thompson worked a double steal. When the throw to third was errant, Thompson scored and Tipton wound up at third. He trotted home on Patterson’s drive to center for a triple.
Lessenberry was hit by a pitch and so was Tucker, loading the bases for Holt who cracked a single that was booted in left, allowing all three runs to score, making it 9-0.
The run rule went into effect in the fifth when Thompson and Ezell drew walks, Zach Graddy was hit by a pitch and Emmerling grounded into a force at third as Thompson scored the game-ending tally.
Bryant 4, Benton 2
Nate Rutherford went the distance on the mound, allowing two runs, one earned, on five hits.
Benton scored its unearned run in the first on a one-out error, a stolen base and a two-out single by Brinson Williams.
The Sox scored twice in the home half with Ezell igniting the offense with a triple. With one down, Patterson doubled him in then scored on Lessenberry’s single.
Bryant made it 3-1 in the third. Tipton singled, stole second and scored on Lessenberry’s second hit.
In the fifth, Tipton walked and swiped a base then scored on a two-out error as Tucker reached base.
Rutherford, meanwhile, pitched around a one-out single in the second; an error and a base hit in the third; then a hit batsman to start the fourth. After retiring the side in order in the fifth, he surrendered the second Benton run in the sixth on a walk, a double and a groundout.
In the seventh, a one-out double by Chase Nix went for naught as the Bryant right-hander closed out the win.
Bryant 3, Jonesboro 1
Zach Jackson allowed an unearned run on three hits, striking out eight. He hit a batter but walked no one in the complete game victory.
The Sox needed that kind of pitching performance because the game was tied 1-1 after six innings. They came through with two in the top of the seventh and Jackson made that hold up despite Jonesboro managing its third hit, a double, with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
The Bryant right-hander retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced. In the fourth, a double, an error and a one-out single produced Jonesboro’s lone run. With runners at first and second, Jackson struck out the next two to keep it 1-1.
The Sox had taken a 1-0 lead in the first when Tipton doubled, Patterson singled him to third and, with two down, Tucker beat out an infield hit.
Graddy and Ezell had singled in the second. In the third, Lessenberry reached on a one-out error and Tucker singled but Holt hit a liner that was caught by the Jonesboro shortstop and turned into a doubleplay.
Graddy walked in the fourth and Tipton singled in the fifth. Holt had a double in the sixth but it remained 1-1 until the seventh when walks to Thompson and Ezell with one out set up the game-turning uprising. With two down, Patterson drilled a single to center that was misplayed. Thompson scored and, moments later, Ezell scrambled home on a passed ball.
The Sox threatened to get more when Lessenberry walked and Tucker was hit by a pitch to load the bases but the Ricemen wriggled off the hook only to have no luck of their own in the home half.
