MALVERN — For the fourth game in a row and 10th time this season, the Bryant Sport Shop Black Sox AA American Legion team was engaged with a one-run game. This time, unfortunately, they lost, in a heartbreaker, when Malvern’s Devin Carpenter drilled a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the ninth, turning Bryant’s 11-9 lead into a 12-11 defeat.
That makes the Sox 5-5 in one-run games as they concluded their regular-season schedule with a 15-10 record. They’ll play in the AA State Tournament in Sheridan, which is slated to commence on July 24.
It was a seesaw battle against Malvern, one of those that seemed destined to go to the team that batted last. Bryant took a 3-0 lead in the first then fell behind 6-3 before battling back to take a 9-6 lead. Malvern cut it to 9-8, Bryant bumped the margin to 11-8 then, after whittling a run off the lead in the bottom of the eighth, Malvern won it on Carpenter’s bases-loaded double.
The Sox hammered out 14 hits including three each from Joey Cates, Hunter Oglesby and Alex Thompson. The also drove in two runs apiece. Bryant was also aided by 10 walks and five errors, but wound up stranding 13 runners.
Malvern’s 12 runs came on 12 hits, six walks, a hit batsman but also seven Bryant errors. Malvern stranded 12.
Carpenter started the game on the mound for Malvern and was unable to record an out. He walked four, two apiece on either side of a pair of Malvern errors as Bryant took a 3-0 lead before Jake Golden relieved and got out of the inning.
Golden held the Sox scoreless over the next three innings as his team surged into the lead.
Oglesby started for Bryant and held Malvern at bay until surrendering an unearned run in the third. The right-hander got out of that jam as he had in the second with strikeouts. He fanned six over the first three frames and had eight over his four-inning stint.
Trailing 3-1, Malvern scored five times in the fourth to take the lead. Golden provided a two-out RBI single which was followed up by a walk to Carpenter and a two-run double from Austin Wright. Jace Tucker also singled in a run.
The Sox got a run closer in the top of the fifth. Daniel Darbonne walked and, when Myers Buck was robbed of a hit on a liner to short, an errant throw to first allowed Darbonne to advance to second. Thompson singled him in but was thrown out trying to get to second on the play, ending the inning.
Drew Brown relieved for Bryant in the fifth and set Malvern down in order. He retired eight of the first nine batters he faced with the only base-runner coming by virtue of an error.
In the top of the seventh, Dalton Bray relieved for Malvern and the Sox jumped on him. Brown led off with a base hit off the glove of the lunging third baseman. Darbonne slapped a single through the left side then Buck drew a walk to load the bases for Thompson who hit a bloop down the left-field line that got past Wright, allowing Brown and Darbonne to score, tying the game 6-6.
With one out, Cates’ sacrifice fly put the Sox ahead again. Oglesby followed with a double to deep left, chasing in Thompson. Caleb Chaffin’s single brought Oglesby home and it was 9-6.
Brown, with the help of Darbonne at second and Buck at short, retired the first two in the bottom of the seventh but a walk was followed by an infield hit by Bray. Whit Jones, the lead runner, sprinted towards third on the late throw to first and the return throw got away allowing Jones to score.
Trace Collie who had three hits for Malvern, singled in Bray to make it 9-8. Walks to Golden and Carpenter loaded the bases for Malvern but, after a visit from Sox manager Hunter Mayall, Brown induced an inning-ending popup that Thompson, the catcher, hauled in.
Bryant padded its lead in the top of the eighth. Darbonne walked and Buck singled to left. Thompson, trying to sacrifice, bunted back to Logan Wright, the fourth Malvern pitcher. He threw to second for a force so the Black Sox had runners at the corners with one out. Diego Vargas walked to load the bases.
Cates, again, came through in the clutch, drilling an RBI single to center. Thompson scored when Oglesby grounded into a force at second but avoided what would’ve been an inning-ending doubleplay by hustling to first to beat the relay.
The Sox tried to steal one more run when Oglesby left first early, drawing a throw. Vargas started home but Malvern executed defensively and a relay home got there in time for the out to end the inning.
Malvern’s Tashawn Hart led off the bottom of the eighth with a double. He stole third and, with one out, Timber Johnson got him home with a sacrifice fly, making it 11-9.
Ashton Holyfield, who had started the game, left it then re-entered (usually not allowed in a AA game) took over on the mound for Malvern in the ninth and, after walking Chaffin, struck out the side.
An error opened the door for Malvern in the bottom of the inning, allowing Brandon Scott to reach base. Collie singled then Golden’s sacrifice bunt was misplayed, loading the bases for Carpenter. He and Brown battled to a 3-2 count before Carpenter’s game-winning double.
