CONWAY — A pair of hard-throwing right-handers handcuffed the Bryant Black Sox, combining on a six-hit shutout as the Texas state champion League City team earned a 5-0 win in the first round of the 2015 MidSouth Regional Tournament at Warriors Field at Hendrix College on Wednesday evening.
League City advances to play a winners’ bracket game against the Southwest Shockers of Lawton, Okla., on Thursday around 4:30 p.m. The Sox will engage Fike Post 499 of Blue Springs, Mo., at around 9:30 a.m. The Missouri champion lost 7-5 to the Oklahoma champion on Wednesday.
In other action, Retif Oil of New Orleans, the Louisiana champion, ripped the Kansas champion, Ottawa Arrows, 12-2.
The Bryant-League City game was delayed for two-hours-plus by rainstorms. The late game between the host Conway Cougars and the Tupelo 49ers, the Mississippi champions, was suspended due to another storm. Conway led 1-0 going into the top of the third. The game will be picked up at 8 a.m., on Thursday, weather permitting.
On Wednesday, Zach Esquivel, who has signed to pitch at Rice University, blanked Bryant, the Arkansas champion, through seven innings, scattering five hits, walking just one and striking out seven. Yadir Muniz, a Houston area All-Star last spring as a senior at Santa Fe High School, blanked the Sox on one hit over the final two frames, retiring the last five in a row.
“Very good pitching,” acknowledged Sox manager Darren Hurt. “Early on, (Esquivel) was really, really good. I really thought if we could just keep grinding it out and get his pitch-count up — he just would not let us get him deep in counts, most of the time. He threw a lot of strikes and he had command of all of his pitches. The guy was good.”
Jason Hastings started on the mound for the Sox and, over the first 6 2/3 innings, gave up three runs, two earned on six hits. But four of those hits came in a clump during the second inning. Jordan Gunter, Timmy Johnson and Preston Plovanich each singled, setting the table for Cody Plowman’s two-run single.
Hastings struck out Dave Reyna then picked off Plonavish at second. He ended the inning by getting Anthony Cole to ground into the hole at short. Plowman made an ill-advised decision to try to get to third and Bryant shortstop Dylan Hurt threw to Brandan Warner at third in time for the tag for the third out.
Drew Tipton, who had two of Bryant’s hits, singled, stole second and was stranded in the opening inning. In the home second, Esquivel retired the first two then walked Logan Allen. Austin Kelly hit a one-hop shot back at the pitcher, who got a glove on the ball but couldn’t hold it.
But both runners were stranded when the Texas right-hander ended the inning with a strikeout.
League City picked up an unearned run in the second. Austin Adams walked and Hastings had him picked off first. Adams took off for second and got in safely when the relay from first sailed into leftfield. Moments later, Michael Rohland doubled him home to make it 3-0.
After that, Hastings shutout the Texans on one hit over the next three innings. The Sox couldn’t take advantage of a two-out single in the third. In the fourth, they put together their best chance at scoring when, with one out, Dylan Hurt singled up the middle then Logan Allen beat out a bunt single and both moved up on a wild pitch.
On the wild pitch with Kelly at the plate, the umpire ruled that the Sox batter swung at the pitch in the dirt. Then, on a 1-1 delivery, Esquivel got the benefit of the call, making it 1-2. Kelly fanned on the next pitch.
“Austin got behind in the count on a curveball that — let’s just say I didn’t agree with the call,” Hurt said. “I would’ve liked to have seen a 2-1 count there instead of a 1-2. You get 1-2 against that guy, the odds against getting a good solid hit drop down pretty good. 2-1, though, maybe he sees a pitch that he can handle.”
Connor Tatum tried to surprise League City with a two-out bunt but Esquivel made the play to end the inning.
“That inning, we needed to scratch,” Hurt asserted.
Those last two outs started a stretch in which Esquivel retired 11 in a row to finish his night at the 103-pitch mark.
“The difference through six innings was that they strung four hits together one inning and ours were one an inning,” Hurt noted. “We were even on hits through the sixth. But we never strung anything together.”
In the home seventh, Hastings retired the first two then Cole pulled a double into the left-field corner. Adams was nicked by a pitch then Rohland pulled a sinking liner to left for an RBI single and Harrison Hill got a bloop to fall in left-center to knock in a second run, making it 5-0.
Alex Shurtleff relieved for the Sox and got Gunter to bounce out to Warner at third. He would pitch a scoreless eighth around a one-out walk as well.
In the home eighth, Tipton beat out a tapper on the infield and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Muniz got Warner and Patterson to pop out and, with Trey Breeding at the plate, Warner was caught trying a delayed steal of third to end the inning.
Warner pitched the top of the ninth and had to fight out of a two-on, one-out jam after another double by Cole and a one-out single by Rohland. He fanned Hill and, after an intentional walk to Gunter, struck out Johnson to keep it 5-0.
But Muniz made quick work of the Sox in the bottom of the ninth. Breeding flew out to center then Garrett Misenheimer and Dylan Hurt fanned to end the game.
