Walk-off win propels Bryant into Junior Legion State title round
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).
SHERIDAN — Matthew Sandidge scored all the way from first on a double by Garrett Misenheimer in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Bryant Everett Buick GMC Black Sox advanced to the championship round of the Junior American Legion State Tournament with a 5-4 walk-off win over Paragould Glen Sain Chevrolet Sunday night.
The Sox, vying to repeat as State champions, are set to play against Texarkana in the semifinals tonight while Paragould and Blytheville square off on the other side of the bracket. Bryant is the lone undefeated team left in the tournament. In accordance with the old college baseball World Series bracket, if the Sox win tonight, they will play on Tuesday at 6 p.m., with two chances to win the State crown against the winner of the Paragould-Blythville game. If the Sox lose to Texarkana tonight, they will advance to the winner-take-all final at 8 p.m., against the survivor of a game between Texarkana and the Paragould-Blytheville winner, which will be played at 6.
Sunday’s game was tied 4-4 going into the bottom of the seventh after Bryant’s Boston Heil, on in relief of starter Aaron Orender, worked out of a two-on, one-out jam in the top of the seventh. With one out in the home half, Sandidge walked to bring up Misenheimer, who had doubled in a run in the fifth. On a 2-1 count, he ripped the game-winning two-bagger as Paragould lost for the first time in the tourney.
Both teams scored in the first. For Paragould, it came on a lead-off single followed by a hit and an error.
For Bryant, Logan Allen drilled a triple and scored on Misenheimer’s sacrifice fly.
Orender worked around a lead-off walk in the second and a one-out error in the third.
In the bottom of the third, the Sox grabbed the lead. Scott Schmidt reached on a one-out error and Allen blasted his second triple. Sandidge picked up an RBI with a groundout to make it 3-1.
Paragould, however, took advantage of three Bryant errors — uncharacteristically, the Sox committed seven miscues in the game — and one base hit to tie the game 3-3. With the go-ahead run at second with just one out, Orender put an end to the uprising by striking out back-to-back batters.
In the bottom of the fourth, Austin Kelly singled, Seth Tucker but was thrown out trying to steal second. Seth Tucker reached on an error, Brandon Hoover singled and Jeffrey Hastings walked but Paragould escaped without giving up a run.
Two more errors allowed Paragould to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth but Bryant knotted it back up on Misenheimer’s first double, which chased home Allen who had opened the inning with a two-bagger, his third hit of the game.
Kelly singled Misenheimer to third but both were stranded.
Orender pitched around a walk and another error in the top of the sixth and, after the Sox were retired in order in the bottom half, gave way to Heil in the seventh. He surrendered a lead-off single and a one-out walk but induced a pair of groundballs that forced Paragould to strand two.
That set up the dramatic finish.
