Sox come from behind again, oust Missouri champ in wild finish; play for trip to World Series today
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).
LITTLE ROCK — Chase Tucker sat, looking a little bemused and plenty relaxed on the first-base bag.
Chaos had broken out just moments before and heated discussions were still raging. With two out and the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning, Tucker had come to the plate with the MidSouth Regional Tournament semifinal game between his Bryant Black Sox and the Missouri Senior American Legion State champions from Jefferson City, freshly knotted up 8-8. A bases-loaded walk to Trevor Ezell had forced in the tying run.
The Sox had relentlessly, inexorably whittled one run after another off the Missouri team’s lead, which had been 7-4 through five innings. They just kept coming, kept pusing, kept pressuring and they trailed just 8-7 going into the ninth.
As each run in the margin disappeared, the pressure seemed to build on Jefferson City. After all, this was their team’s season. A loss would send them home. Too, they knew that Bryant had rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth the night before to shock Columbia, Tenn., 6-5. They knew too that the Sox were the team to beat in the tournament, a team good enough to come into the battle with a gaudy 45-4 record overall.
Pressure — some folks just don’t handle it as others.
For the Jefferson City team on Sunday night, it seemed that as the score got tighter, so did the players. Adding to their frustrations was the fact that, beyond a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth by Strobel, Bryant reliever Austin Caldwell was putting the stops on the Missouri team’s offense, keeping his team in it.
And the Sox kept ratcheting up that pressure in the ninth. It started to show a little when Dalton Holt hit a ball hit up the middle that was knocked down with a dive by second baseman Logan Vogel. But Holt beat the throw to first for a hit.
More pressure: Pinch-hitter Evan Lee, just as he did in Saturday night’s ninth-inning rally, worked a walk.
It took a big bump up when Korey Thompson, despite the infield being in, perfectly placed a bunt up the third-base line. Missouri’s Cole Distler charged and fired to first. But his throw skipped in to first baseman Hayden Strobel who couldn’t dig it out.
With the bases loaded, Ezell drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch, forcing in Holt with the tying run. After Distler, the third Jefferson City pitcher, struck out Drew Tipton, it brought up Tucker. On a 1-1 pitch (just like on Tipton’s game-winning double in the ninth against Tennessee), Tucker came through with a roller to the left of the mound. Shortstop Cody Stegemann charged in while third sacker Corey Beard ranged to his left, making a nice play then firing to first. The ball and Tucker got to the bag at the same time and when a safe call resulted, the Missouri players went ballistic.
Strobel came off the bag headed to the dugout, figuring it was the third out. When he realized the call had been, “Safe.” He whirled around and spiked the ball off the infield turf. He and Distler began hopping up and down, and yelling at the first base umpire who instantly threw them out of the game.
But the play appeared to be continuing. C.J. Phillips, running for Lee, scored easily but when Strobel threw the ball down, the other runners kept running. Thompson sprinted home and Ezell made the turn and headed toward the plate.
While others were losing their heads, Vogel kept his. He noticed the Sox running ‘round the bases, picked up the ball and fired home in time for catcher Logan Bax to apply the tag that would’ve been the final out of the inning.
The managers of both teams protested vehemently. Jefferson City’s Dane Hughes got no satisfaction on his protest of the call at first or the ejection of his players. Bryant’s Darren Hurt was fired up because he was told that when the ejections occurred, the ball was automatically dead and Thompson’s run would be taken off the board, leaving Bryant up 9-8.
Hurt contended that making his runners go back, it was tantamount to rewarding Jefferson City for the bad behavior of its players. He said later that he was told that time had been called as the time of the ejections but it was by the same umpire that had called Ezell out at the plate moments later. He related that the umpire amended his statement after that was pointed out, saying one of his colleagues had called timeout.
All the players came off the field as Tucker sat on first and the arguments continued near homeplate.
Eventually, the umpires all got together and declared that Bryant should be credited with the one run that scored prior to the melee, the others had to go back to second and third.
With its pitcher ejected, Jefferson City turned to lefty Austin Sachse who got the final out of the inning.
Lost, apparently, in all the over-the-top reactions of Missouri players was the fact that they still had a chance to tie it back up or win it in the bottom of the ninth. And it was to be Strobel, who had gone 2 for 4 in the game with his homer, two other RBI’s and two runs scored, that was due to lead-off the final frame.
His replacement, however, Brenden Ogletree cracked a single to left on Caldwell’s last pitch of the evening. Holt relieved and got Bax to bounce to Blake Patterson at first who threw to Ezell at second for a force. Vogel stepped in and, on a 1-1 pitch, lashed a liner that Thompson speared. Bax, running from first on the play, was doubled off to end the game.
In conjunction with the 8-7 win earlier in the day by Columbia, Tenn., over Ratif Oil of New Orleans, the Louisiana champion, Bryant’s victory set up a rematch in the championship round today. It the Sox win the first game, which starts at 2 p.m., they capture the Regional crown and board a plane on Tuesday for a trip to Shelby, N.C., for the American Legion World Series. A win by Tennessee would force a second winner-take-all title game 30 minutes after the first one.
“That was tough,” Hurt said after the game. “(Saturday) night was tough but that one was right there. But we kept grinding away. We found a way to win.
“Caldwell stepped up,” he noted.
The right-hander, a 19-year-old that didn’t play any spring ball but wanted to come back for one more go-‘round at Legion, allowed one run on four hits without a walk while striking out two in 3 2/3 innings of relief of starter Devin Dupree. Caldwell earned the win, improving to 3-0 on the season. Holt got the save.
The Sox came into the contest with a spot in the championship game on Monday nailed down after taking the winners’ bracket final over Tennessee.
“We were determined that we were not using one of our three pitchers that we’ve got for tomorrow,” he related. “We were going to save them for tomorrow, period. We were either going to win it or lose it with (Caldwell) and we won it with him. He did a heck of a job.”
Dupree held Jefferson City to two runs over four innings but, in the fifth, five consecutive hits and eight in the innings turned Bryant’s 4-2 lead into a 7-4 deficit before Caldwell got the final two outs, forcing Jeff City to leave the bases loaded.
The Sox finished with 14 hits highlighted by Holt’s 4-for-4 performance. Ezell and Tipton added three hits each; Tucker and Patterson two apiece. Missouri pitchers also walked nine (compared to one the whole game by the Bryant pitchers). Jefferson City turned three doubleplays and forced the Sox to strand 14.
Each team scored in the first. For Bryant, Ezell singled, stole second, advanced to third on an errant throw then scored on a wild pitch. For Jefferson City, Dylan Brauner doubled and scored on Distler’s single to center.
In the third, Tipton beat out an infield hit, took second on a passed ball and, after Tucker walked, Lessenberry got a bunt down that drew a wild throw to first. Two runs scored and Lessenberry wound up at second. After Patterson singled him to third, Warner came through with an excellent bunt to get the third run in.
Stegemann quickly trimmed a run off the lead with a solo homer to left, leading off the third but Dupree, despite an error, preserved the lead by getting out of the inning.
It stayed 4-2 until Missouri’s big fifth was highlighted by an RBI double by Brauner, a two-run single by Strobel, and an RBI knock by A.J. Elsworth.
The whittling commenced in the top of the sixth. Holt singled, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out single to deep short by Ezell. Strobel’s homer got that run back.
A one-out walk to Patterson led to another Bryant tally. After advancing to second a wild pitch, Holt came through with a two-out RBI single to make it 8-6.
In the home seventh, Vogel and Elsworth each singled but Bryant turned its second doubleplay to escape the threat.
Ezell cracked a one-out single to start the eighth. After he swiped second, Tipton walked. Tucker bunted for a hit to load the bases. Vogel, the second Missouri pitcher induced a pop to shallow right from Lessenberry. Beard ranged out to make the catch but when he, apparently, thought that Ezell was tagging up, in advance of a dash to the plate. But his throw was errant and Ezell sprinted home to make it 8-7.
Caldwell retired the side in order in the eighth, thanks in part to a nice play by Thompson at second, throwing to Caldwell covering the bag for the out. That set up the wild finish.
BRYANT 9, JEFFERSON CITY 8
Black Sox ab r h bi Post 5 ab r h bi
Ezell, ss 5 2 3 2 Brauner, cf 5 2 2 1
Tipton, lf 5 1 3 0 Distler, 3b-p 5 1 2 2
Tucker, cf 4 1 2 1 Sachse, p 0 0 0 0
Lessenberry, 1b-c 5 1 0 0 Strobel, 1b 4 2 2 3
Patterson, dh-1b 3 1 2 0 Ogletree, 1b 1 0 1 0
Warner, 3b 4 0 0 1 Bax, c 5 0 0 0
Holt, rf-1b-p 4 2 4 1 Schnieders, p 3 0 2 0
Breeding, c 4 0 0 0 Vogel, p-2b 2 0 1 0
Lee, ph 0 0 0 0 Beard, 2b-3b 4 0 1 0
Phillips, pr 0 1 0 0 Elsworth, rf 3 0 2 1
Thompson, 2b 3 0 0 0 Burshjost, lf 4 1 1 0
Dupree, p 0 0 0 0 Stegemann, ss 4 2 2 1
Caldwell, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 36 9 14 5 Totals 40 8 15 8
Bryant 103 001 112 — 9
Jeff City 101 051 000 — 8
E—Bax, Schneiders, Distler, Tipton, Ezell, Vogel, Beard. DP—Bryant 2, Jefferson City 3. LOB—Bryant 14, Jefferson City 6. 2B—Brauner 2, Tipton. SB—Ezell 2, Tucker, Tipton, Distler. S—Warner, Thompson.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Bryant
Dupree 4.1 7 7 10 1 1
Caldwell (W) 3.2 1 1 4 0 2
Holt (S) 1 0 0 0 0 0
Jefferson City
Schnieders 6 5 2 10 5 4
Vogel 1.1 2 1 1 2 0
Distler (L) 0.2 2 0 1 2 1
Sachse 0.1 0 0 0 0 0
WP—Schnieders 2, Vogel. PB—Bax.
Umpires—Jones (hp), Cayson (1b), Strada (2b), Whitaker (3b).
