It was a rugged night for the Bryant Black Sox AA American Legion team on Thursday as they played host to the Sheridan Yellowjackets AA squad.
While the AA Sox are mostly guys that haven’t played since last summer — and these were their second and third games this season — Sheridan’s AA squad is almost entirely made up of players that were on the high school team. Though they’re just about all 16 and 17 year olds, they’ve been playing games since late February. Some of them played key roles in the SHS team that won the 2015 Class 6A State championship and finished a pitch away from returning to the title game in 2016. It’s basically the 2017 Sheridan High School team.
They’re very good.
Meanwhile, most of the AA Sox are just getting their feet under them. Their coach, Hunter Mayall, a former start at Bryant and Henderson State University, is just getting to know them and what they can do.
So, on Thursday, Sheridan swept their doubleheader, 17-3, and 15-4.
Bryant will get some time to practice perhaps between now and its next game. They’ll be off until they play in the Sheridan Wood Bat Tournament starting June 15.
Both of Thursday’s games got away late. In the opener, Sheridan took a 1-0 lead in the first. Bryant, buoyed by some Senior Sox players, countered with two runs in the home half to take the lead.
Joey Cates started the uprising with a triple. Hunter Oglesby singled him home then raced to third on an errant pickoff throw. With one out, he scored on a groundout by Jordan Gentry.
Drew Brown, who had two hits for the Sox, lashed a double to right but was stranded.
Sheridan, however, scored three times without a hit in the top of the second. Two walks, a hit batsman and a two-base throwing error contributed to the inning. Cates forced the Jackets to strand runners at second and third, though, by inducing a pop to Kaleb Kling in left then striking out clean-up hitter Hadyn Finley.
The Sox cut it to 4-3 in the second when Kyle Kling led off with a single and, with one out, twin brother Kaleb yanked a base hit inside the bag at third. A walk to Cates loaded the bases and, with two down, Diego Vargas was hit by a pitch to force in the run. Gentry made a bid for a hit with a pop into shallow right but Vargas was forced at second when the ball dropped in.
Sheridan tacked on a run on a double and a two-out two-base error to make it 5-3.
Meanwhile, Jackets’ right-hander Jace Phillips, who was a senior at Poyen High School this spring, settled in. He allowed a single to Brown in the bottom of the third and a single to Gentry in the fifth while going the rest of the seven-inning contest.
Cates, pitching for the first time since last summer, worked around a two-out double and a walk in the fourth but ran into control trouble in the fifth. Two walks and two hit batsmen played into Sheridan’s three-run inning before Noah Easterling relieved. He walked in a run but then got the final out of the inning.
Sheridan added two more runs to make it 10-3 in the sixth, aided by an error. A seven-run seventh completed the rout.
In the second game, the first five Sheridan batters reached base as part of a five-run burst.
The Sox whittled at the margin. In the first, Cates walked and raced to third on an errant pickoff throw. He would score on a wild pitch as Oglesby drew a free pass. Walks to Vargas and Gentry loaded the bases but hard-throwing Hunter Hicks escaped further damage by striking out the side.
In four innings, Hicks walked nine and struck out seven. Unfortunately, the Sox weren’t able to take full advantage as they mustered just three hits.
Gentry, who threw his first inning on the mound since last summer in a June 6 game, settled in after the rugged start and held Sheridan in the second and third.
Bryant clipped off another run in the home second on an RBI double by Oglesby. Alex Thompson had opened the inning with a walk but was forced at second on a grounder to short by Cates. But Cates stole second to get into scoring position for Oglesby’s drive to right-center.
In the third, the Sox cut the lead to 5-4. Gentry shot a lead-off double to right-center, advanced to third on a passed ball and, after Jeffrey Hastings walked, came home on a wild pitch as Brown drew a free pass.
Kyle Kling’s pop to short right was dropped but Brown was forced at second as Hastings scooted to third. Though Sheridan coach Tyler Pickett, a former standout player at Bryant, argued that the infield fly rule should’ve been invoked, the play stood and, moments later, Noah Record singled to right to drive in Hastings.
With the potential tying run at second and lead-run at first with one out, Hicks found his groove again and retired the next two to preserve the lead.
And Record’s second was the last hit for Bryant. Sheridan scored five times in the top of the fourth and five more in the top of the fifth to make it a run-rule win as the Sox went through four pitchers.
Gentry and Hastings each walked in the fourth but were stranded. In the home fifth, reliever Alex Calaway retired the Sox in order to close it out.
