Sport Shop Sox rally for two in the bottom of the seventh to edge Texarkana
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).
By Rob Patrick
After their 2-1 lead got away in the top of the seventh, the Bryant Sport Shop Black Sox AA American Legion team rallied for two runs in the bottom of the inning to pull out a 4-3 win over the Texarkana Razorbacks Junior squad on Saturday. Hunter Oglesby came through with the game-winning hit on an 0-2 pitch with two outs after Nick Kehrees tied it with a squeeze bunt that brought in Weston Jones.
Bryant had five of its eight hits in the last two innings as they snapped a 1-1 tie in the sixth and won it in the seventh.
“We played as a team tonight,” stated Black Sox manager Seth Doxey. “There was no individual on that field. It was great to see that when mistakes were made, there was not a head dropped. I feel that we can build off of this and carry the momentum on into (Sunday).”
The Sox conclude play in the Black pool of the second annual Ryan White Memorial Wood Bat Tournament against Pangburn Rayburn Sporting Goods AA team at 4:30 this afternoon.
In other games Saturday, the Bryant Everett Black Sox Junior team held on to beat Pangburn, 7-5. Pine Bluff National Bank’s AA team blanked Cabot, 4-0, but lost in eight innings, 4-3, to Pangburn.
Sunday’s other two games pit Bryant Everett against Texarkana at 2 p.m., then Texarkana against Cabot at 7.
On Monday, the winners from the Black pool and White pool competing in Bryant will travel to Lakeside for bracket play against the winners of the Blue and Gold pools, respectively, which have been contested at Lakeside High School.
Sport Shop took a 1-0 lead in the first on Saturday. Daniel Darbonne walked, stole second, went to third on an errant throw and scored on Oglesby’s groundout.
Oglesby would finish with two hits and two RBIs. Darbonne wound up scoring three of the Black Sox runs.
But with Bryant’s Justin Emmerling and Texarkana Hunter McGilberry dueling, it stayed 1-0 through five innings. Emmerling pitched around a one-out error in the first, retiring the next seven in a row. In the third, he hit Nick Myers with two down then surrendered a single to Zack Harrington. It was the lone hit against the Bryant right-hander. And the inning came to a close when Emmerling picked Myers off second.
In the fourth, Brandon White was hit by a pitch and Braden Warner walked but, after a visit from Doxey, Emmerling struck out the side to keep it 1-0.
In the meantime, McGilberry, who pitched Texarkana High School to a Class 6A State Tournament win earlier this month, surrendered singles to C.J. Phillips and Dakota Besancon in the second but wriggled off the hook. A single by Bradley Plunket in the third came to nothing.
Tre Davis relieved for the Sox and pitched a scoreless fifth. Andrew Kincaid took over on the mound in the sixth and retired the first batter. But Warner reached on an error. He would eventually score the tying run. Ryan Orr was hit by a pitch and, after a wild pitch, Zack Phillips was intentionally walked to set up a doubleplay situation. Kincaid got the grounder he needed but it was hit too slowly. Jones got a force at third but his relay to first was too late and Warner scored.
Kincaid made a nice play on a roller up the right side off the bat of Blake Bearden. The right-hander fielded the ball and flipped a back-handed toss to Caleb Chaffin at first to keep it tied.
And the Sox went right to work regaining the lead in the bottom of the inning against reliever Steven Boyce. Darbonne was the instigator again, earning a walk then stealing second and taking third on a wild pitch. With one out, Kincaid stepped up with a grounder up the middle for an RBI single.
Oglesby followed with a hit to right, sending Kincaid to third and taking second himself on the late throw there but Boyce escaped with no further damage.
Besancon took over on the mound for Bryant in the seventh and was greeded by singles from Steve Caple and Myers. Those were the first two Texarkana hits since the third inning and just the second and third of the game.
Harrington sacrificed the runners to second and third and White walked to load the bases with one out. Caple scored on a wild pitch then Myers followed with the go-ahead run on a grounder to third by Warner. With runners at first and second, Besancon got another grounder to third by Orr. Jones stepped on the bag and fired to first in time of an inning-ending doubleplay.
Jones built on that momentum by opening the bottom of the inning with a ringing double to right-center. Chaffin got down a perfect bunt to move him to third and, on the very next pitch, Kehrees got the squeeze bunt down. Boyce fielded the ball and tried to flip it to his catcher but it was too late and off line as Jones slid in safely.
Alertly, Kehrees wheeled into second on the play, representing the winning run.
Darbonne hit a grounder to Myers at short with Kehrees breaking toward third. Myers threw to try to get him at third but White’s swipe tag missed the mark as Kehrees slid in safely.
With runners at the corners, Darbonne left early from first trying to get into a rundown that would allow Kehrees to score the game-winner but Harrington, the second baseman, whipped a throw home in time for the out.
Darbonne made it to second on the play but there were two outs. Plunkett worked the count to 2-2 then got plunked to keep the inning alive. Michael Martindale, in his first at-bat of the game, pulled a single into left that was hit too sharply to get the run in. But it set the stage for Oglesby’s game-winner moments later.
BRYANT SPORT SHOP 4, TEXARKANA 3
Razorbacks ab r h bi Black Sox ab r h bi
Myers, ss 3 1 1 0 Darbonne, 2b 2 3 0 0
Harrington, 2b 3 0 1 0 Plunkett, lf 3 0 1 0
White, 3b 2 0 0 0 Emmerling, p-dh 1 0 0 0
Warner, 1b 3 1 0 1 Kincaid, p 1 0 1 1
Orr, dh 3 0 0 0 Martindale, cf 1 0 1 0
Z.Phillips, lf 2 0 0 0 Oglesby, rf 4 0 2 2
Izzo, c 3 0 0 1 C.Phillips, c 3 0 1 0
Bearden, cf 2 0 0 0 Besancon, cf-p 3 0 1 0
Caple, rf 3 1 1 0 Jones, 3b 3 1 1 0
McGilberry, p 0 0 0 0 Long, 1b 1 0 0 0
Boyce, p 0 0 0 0 Fuquay, pr 0 0 0 0
Chaffin, 1b0000
Kehrees, ss2001
Davis, p0000
Totals 24 3 3 2 Totals 24 4 8 4
Texarkana 000 001 2 — 3
Sport Shop 100 001 2 — 4
Two outs when winning run scored.
E—Jones, Izzo, McGilberry, Kehrees, Boyce. DP—Texarkana 2, Bryant 1. LOB—Texarkana 8, Bryant 7. 2B—Jones. SB—White, Darbonne 2, Plunkett, Emmerling, C.Phillips. S—Harrington, Chaffin, Kehrees.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Texarkana
McGilberry 5 1 0 3 2 5
Boyce (L) 1.2 3 3 5 1 2
Sport Shop
Emmerling 4 0 0 1 1 4
Davis 1 0 0 0 0 0
Kincaid 1 1 0 0 1 0
Besancon (W) 1 2 2 2 1 0
HBP—Myers, White (by Emmerling), Bearden (by Davis), Long (by McGilberry), Orr (by Kincaid), Plunkett (by Boyce). WP—Davis, Kincaid, Besancon, Boyce. PB—C.Phillips.
