Sox, Hogs split key Senior Legion twinbill
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting 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).
After spotting the Red River Union Razorbacks of Texarkana a 6-0 start while being held without a hit through three innings, the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the fourth and added seven more in the fifth to turn that 6-0 deficit into a 16-6 run-rule win.
In a doubleheader between the traditional Zone 4 powerhouses, the Razorbacks picked up a 5-1 win in the second game, which was abbreviated by lightning in the area, just as the bottom of the sixth inning was getting underway, cutting short any hopes the Sox had of a second comeback win.
The results made the Sox 21-2 overall this season, 4-1 in Zone play. It was Texarkana’s first league loss in the first contest. The two teams both played in the annual 19-and-under Battle of Omaha over the last week with Bryant reaching the semifinals.
If both teams win the rest of the Zone games or otherwise wind up tied, Bryant will have the higher seed because of the greater run differential in its win.
In recent years, Bryant and Texarkana have annually decided the regular-season league championship when they played, which brings a first-round by in the Zone tournament. Then they’ve wound up playing for the Zone tournament championship and, beyond that, the State tournament championship. Texarkana won the State title last year with a win over the Sox after Bryant won it in 2012 with a win over the Razorbacks. The 2011 title came down to the same two teams with the Hogs winning that year.
This season, the Black Sox will host the Zone and State tournaments with hopes of taking their turn and advancing to the Mid-South Regional, which will be held at North Little Rock’s Vince DeSalvo Stadium.
The programs are a contrast. Texarkana annually puts together a regional all-star team, with players from northeast Texas and all over south and southwest Arkansas. Other programs like Fort Smith and Jonesboro are similarly put together.
The Sox, on the other hand, are all products of the highly successful youth and high school programs in the city of Bryant. Though not completely so, that approach to Legion baseball is unique.
Bryant will be traveling again the next two weekends. They’ll play seven games in pool play at the highly-regarded Keith Hagan Memorial All American wood bat tournament in Memphis starting Friday. They’ll then spend the Fourth of July holiday weekend in the annual Southwest Illinois Firecracker Classic.
“We mustered enough in the first game to make the comeback but I think the Omaha trip, we ran out of gas there,” said Sox manager Darren Hurt. “A day off (on Tuesday) helped but I just think we’re a little dead-legged right now.
“Texarkana’s got a good ballclub again,” he added. “That’s no surprise. That’s what they do. They always put together a good one. We know we’ve got to go through them to get there, to get what we want.”
The Razorbacks were missing a couple of key hitters in Kyle Duncan and Hayden Phillips. And they made the trip without a pair of pitchers that have been in the rotation, Dylan Silvy and Caleb Stutts.
In turn, Hurt didn’t set up his rotation specially to have his top starting pitchers ready to go. It was the turn of right-handers Harrison Dale and Dalton Holt and both pitched well enough to win.
In the first game, only one of Texarkana’s six runs was earned. Dale had set down the first seven Razorback batters before a walk and an error with one out in the third led to a five-run inning. An infield chop for an RBI single got the first run home then Dale struck out Blake Hall for what would’ve been the third out. But, as the second, the inning continued with Jackson Murphy and Brandon White cracking RBI doubles and Trey Jeans capping off the inning with a triple.
In the top of the fourth, Nick Myers doubled, Nathan Stubber was hit by a pitch and Hudson Hopkins singled to load the bases. A run scored on Hall’s groundout but, after that, Dale shut things down.
And the Sox revved things up. Right-hander George Eubanks, a star at Hooks, Texas high school, only allowed a pair of walks over the first three innings and he started the bottom of the fourth with a third one as Blake Patterson reached base. Hayden Lessenberry battled Eubanks to a full count then clubbed a drive beyond left-fielder Jake Alexander for the Sox first hit, a double.
Patterson scored on a wild pitch as Chase Tucker was earning a walk. Holt picked up an RBI with a ground ball. And when the throw to first was errant, he reached safely with the score 6-2.
That’s when the floodgates opened. Brandan Warner cracked an RBI single and Justin Emmerling followed with a scorcher to left for a two-run knock, cutting it to 6-5.
Korey Thompson sacrificed Emmerling to second and, after Trevor Ezell drew the second of three walks in the game, Drew Tipton beat out an infield hit to load the bases for Patterson who delivered an RBI single to left to tie the game and end the evening for Eubanks.
With Alexander on the bump, Lessenberry drew the second of his three free passes then Chase Tucker unloaded on an 0-2 pitch and knocked it off the base of the fence in left-center, chasing home two more.
Suddenly, it was 9-6.
In the top of the fifth, Dale issued a one-out walk to Jeans but the Sox turned a nifty doubleplay on Alexander’s grounder to Ezell at short to get off the field.
They then put the finishing touches on the win with the help of five walks and a trio of wild pitches. Tipton, Tucker and Warner had RBI singles with the last of those ending the game.
In the second game, Texarkana’s Zac Harrington allowed base runners in five of the six innings but the Sox were only able to squeeze in one run. It came in the second after Dalton Holt had singled to right and Emmerling and Zach Graddy had been hit by pitches to load the bases. Thompson executed the squeeze play, getting the bunt down for the RBI.
Holt struck out three as he retired the first five Razorbacks batters in the game. Alexander reached on catcher’s interference and Nick Myers singled but both were stranded.
The Sox got a bad break in the third when Tucker cracked a one-out single and was on the run when Patterson lined out to center. Hopkins was able to first in to first just in time to double off the back-tracking Tucker.
Holt struck out the first batter in the bottom of the third but just missed on a 3-2 pitch to Hopkins who then stole second and moved to third on Hall’s groundout. A strike away from ending the inning, Holt hit Murphy with a pitch and, moments later, White slugged a triple to right center to make it 2-1. He scored on Jeans’ infield hit.
In the top of the fourth, Warner and Graddy singled but both were stranded. Holt, in turn, set down the Razorbacks in order.
The Sox thought they had something going in the top of the fifth when Ezell ripped a single to center and stole second. With Tucker up and one out, he took off to steal third and appeared to get in ahead of the tag but was called out. Hurt asked for an appeal to the homeplate umpire who had a different angle on the play but was denied. Harrington fanned Tucker to end the inning.
Texarkana tacked on a pair of runs in the fifth when Hopkins was struck by a pitch, Hall singled and Murphy drove in a run with a base hit. A double steal produced the second run as the Sox tagged out Murphy. Trey Breeding relieved for Bryant and struck out White and Jeans to end the inning.
After Alexander worked a 1-2-3 sixth, he singled to start the bottom of the inning when the game was stopped because of lightning in the area. When it didn’t subside the game was called.
