Tipton delivers winning run in 14th as Senior Sox outlast Eureka, Mo.
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).
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Drew Tipton cracked an sharp single to left with one out in the bottom of the[more] 14th inning to drive in Tyler Nelson with the winning run in the Bryant Black Sox 2-1 marathon against Eureka, Mo., Post 177 in the first game of pool play at the Senior American Legion Tournament of Champions on Friday.
Each team scored a run in the first inning then four Bryant pitchers and two Eureka hurlers dueled in a 1-1 deadlock until the 14th inning of the scheduled seven-inning contest.
Bryant turned around and notched a 6-2 win over DeSoto, Mo., to improve to 2-0 in its pool and 22-2-1 overall on the season.
The fourth Bryant pitcher, Hayden Daniel, struck out the side in the top of the 14th of the win over Eureka. In the bottom of the inning, Hayden Lessenberry laced a single to center. Nelson, trying to bunt him over, beat out a hit to put runners at second and third. Chase Tucker got a bunt down as well but Eurkea got a force at third. Yet another bunt, this time by Daniel, went for a hit loading the bases for Tipton who shot the first pitch he saw into left for the win.
Zach Jackson started on the mound for the Sox and surrendered a lead-off single. A sacrifice moved the runner to second and another single put runners at first and third. Jackson picked up the first of his seven strikeouts but a base hit on a 1-2 pitch put Eureka on the board.
Jackson ended the inning with his second K and wound up going six innings without giving up another tally, pitching out of jams in the second, third and fourth.
Bryant tied it in the bottom of the first when Trevor Ezell ripped a triple to right-center and scored on Marcus Wilson’s single to right. The Sox threatened to get more. Wilson swiped second and, with two down, Nelson beat out a bunt single to put runners at first and third. Nelson swiped a bag but Tucker’s foul pop was caught to end the inning.
The Eureka pitcher proceeded to retire the next 14 batters before Wilson singled up the middle with one out in the home sixth. But he was picked off and it turned into another 1-2-3 inning.
Another three-up, three-down frame occurred in the seventh but the Sox knocked the starter out in the eighth. Cody Gogus walked and Tipton, in to run, was bunted to second by Korey Thompson. With two out, Ozzie Hurt singled to put runners at the corners but the reliever got Wilson to bounce to short to end send it to the ninth.
Tucker beat out a bunt hit with two down in the ninth but was stranded. In the 10th,
Thompson singled but was thrown out trying to steal.
The Sox threatened with two out in the 13th. Ezell singled and went to third on a base hit by Hurt, who stole second. Both were stranded, however.
Meanwhile, Jackson pitched around a hit batsman and walk in the second, a pair of singles in the second, and an error and base hit in the third which ended with the Sox turning a doubleplay.
The right-hander wound up retiring the last seven batters he faced before giving way to Tryce Schalchlin in the seventh. He set down the first seven batters he faced before surrendering a one-out single in the ninth. A bunt hit, a sacrifice and a walk had the bases full with two down but Schalchlin got out of the jam with a fly to Tucker in right.
Nate Rutheford pitched the 10th and 11th, retiring five in a row before allowing a two-out single in the 11th. That runner was erased, however, when Lessenberry picked him off first.
Daniel was greeted by a single in the 12th but he fanned the next batter and the Sox turned another doubleplay. With two out in the 13th, Eureka put two runners aboard with a walk and an infield hit but Daniel got the next hitter to ground to Hurt at short for a force at second to send it to the 14th.
