EDITOR'S NOTE: All youth teams are welcome to submit scorebooks with rosters to rob@bryantdaily.com for game reports.
In Bryant Athletic Association Rookie League action on Monday, the Action Sports Pix A’s snapped[more] a 4-4 tie with a four-run third and made it hold up for a 9-4 win over AC of Arkansas on Field C4 at Bishop Park.
Luke Bickerstaff’s two-run triple highlighted the breakout inning which started with a single by Tristan Shamlin. After stealing his way to third, Shamlin scored the tie-breaking run on Mason Dougherty’s groundout.
An infield hit by C.J. Nagle revved things up from there. Gage Horn doubled to set the table for Bickerstaff’s three-bagger. And when Jayden Everett followed with a single, Bickerstaff scored to make it 8-4.
ASP added a run in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Dakota Bunt and Lee Eskridge.
AC of Arkansas broke out on top in the first inning, plating three runs. Noah Flack led off the game with a hit and, an out later, scored on a triple by Tucker Dunn. Jase Billingsley’s single made it 2-0. Billingsley eventually scored on a passed ball to add on.
In the home first, the A’s countered with a maximum four runs. Nagle led off with a single then scored on Horn’s triple. Bickerstaff singled him in to make it 3-2. Everett, Braxton Fischer and Bunt worked the same formula for another pair of tallies. Everett singled, Fischer tripled him home then scored on Bunt’s base hit to put the A’s ahead by a run.
AC tied it in the top of the fourth on a clutch two-out RBI single by Jackson Dobbins. Matthew Whitworth had led off the inning with an infield hit and Cameron Apel followed suit. But they remained at first and second as ASP retired the next two batters. After a double steal to get them to second and third, Dobbins came through with the hit that knotted it.
The A’s were held in the bottom of the third despite a single by Eskridge and AC was unable to grab the lead in the top of the third despite a one-out double by Dunn, setting the stage for the ASP uprising in the home third.
As it turned out, the A’s wound up retiring eight of the last nine AC batters to close out the game. The only interruption was a two-out single by Apel in the top of the fourth of the five-inning contest.
