By Rob Patrick

SHERIDAN — This time, the Bryant Black Sox matched the intensity, the focus and the enthusiasm of the Sheridan Yellowjackets. They just couldn't match their bats.

In a rematch of a rematch of a rematch, the Sox met the Jackets in the final four of the Junior Legion State Tournament on Monday night, hoping to repeat something that nobody else in the post-season has done: Beat Sheridan. It would've given them a shot at playing for a bid to the finals against Texarkana on Tuesday. But Sheridan's bats continued to boom. In every State game, the Yellowjackets have played in, they've scored in double digits (five games in a row if you go back to the District finals) as they ended Bryant's season with a 10-5 decision.

The Sox had defeated Sheridan in the winners bracket finals of the District only to have the fired up Jackets come back to win two games the next night, including a 6-3 win over Bryant, to force a winner-take-all final that went Sheridan's way again 11-1.

And the Jackets haven't lost since. They will play Texarkana for the championship on Tuesday. Texarkana will have to beat Sheridan twice to gain the title.

The Sox finish the season 19-12-1, and a better team at the end than they were in the beginning. And their finish in the final four of the State tournament was the best by a Bryant 17-and-under Legion team since 1994, the last time a Bryant team won a State title in that age group. And all of these Sox were 16, playing their first year in Legion except for one.

By Rob Patrick

Lucas Castleberry and Evan Jobe fuled a five-run fourth-inning rally for the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion at Bryant High School Field on Wednesday.

The Sox were trailing the Hot Springs Village Knights Junior team, 5-2, going into the home fourth. The rally gave Bryant a 7-5 win, improving its record to 4-1 going into a doubleheader at home on Sunday against Little Rock Continental Express.

A one-out pinch-hit single by Blake Davidson got the Sox' comeback started in the home fourth. Chris Joiner reached on an error as Davidson hustled to third. Joiner moved up on a wild pitch before Castleberry came through in the clutch with a shot down the left field line to drive both home.

With two down, Castleberry, noticing that the Knights weren't holding him close at second, took off and stole third as Brady Butler drew a walk. Consecutive walks to Landon Pickett and Tyler Brown forced in the tying run, setting the table for Jobe's two-out liner to right on a 3-2 pitch for a two-run single that put the Sox on top.

BAUXITE — On the verge of suffering a second consecutive loss on the same day, the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team put together a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning then held on to forge a 7-5 victory over Little Rock Continental Express in pool play at the Benton Tournament held at Bauxite High School on Saturday.

With Sunday's games washed out by rain, the Sox were unable to play their third pool game to earn a shot at the championship round of the event. The Sox will return to action on Sunday, May 31, with a doubleheader rematch with Continental Express.

A two-out error opened the door for the Bryant rally. Landon Pickett and Evan Jobe had drawn walks to start the frame but two outs later, they had only advanced to second and third. After fouling off a 2-2 pitch to stay alive, Reese O'Rourke put the ball in play. The fly to right was mishandled and both runs scored to give the Sox a 4-3 lead.

Chris Joiner, who was 3-for-3 in the game, cracked a single to left to keep the inning going then Lucas Castleberry drove in a run with a single. And when the ball was misplayed in center, the Sox again had runners at second and third. Caleb Milam followed with a bouncer that got past the Continental third baseman and both Joiner and Castleberry scored to put the Sox in front 7-3.

By Rob Patrick

BAUXITE — The sweet spot is an elusive thing on a wooden bat, especially when you're used to hitting with a more forgiving metal one.

Couple the adjustments needed in the transition with some effective pitching and you've got a low scoring, edge-of-your-seat ball game like the one the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team played against the Hot Springs Trojans AA squad at Bauxite High School on Saturday afternoon.

It was the first game of pool play for both teams in a wood bat tournament, hosted by the Benton Legion team, at Miners Field. Bryant was scheduled to play again Saturday evening against Little Rock Continental Express then wrap up pool play on Sunday against Sheridan.

Through five innings, Bryant's Matt Neal and Hot Springs' Andrew Love both had no-hitters going. Both had their share of easy groundouts off those old-fashioned bats but they'd fired plenty of pitches past those bats as well. Neal fanned seven, Love six. 

Both had given way to teammates, however, when the game was decided. In the bottom of the eight, Love himself blooped a two-out single down the right-field line to drive in Jonathan Hall to give Hot Springs a 2-1 victory.

By Rob Patrick

The most notorious example of the Bryant Black Sox' second-game droops came in 2007 of all seasons. The team lost 7-1 to Lake Hamilton and looked so bad that manager Craig Harrison wondered whether his team could manage a .500 season. He and coach Tic Harrison convened a team meeting in the outfield after the game, called their team out for its effort and the wind sprints across the outfield grass commenced.

Ironically, that team not only played better than .500, they won 41 games, claimed a State championship and a Regional title on the way to become the first Bryant team to reach the American Legion World Series.

Another lackluster performance against the Wolves in 2008 resulted in a sprint session as well. So, going into Tuesday's second game of the season, again with Lake Hamilton, the Sox were made well aware of the history.

As it turned out, a crisply played game for six innings turned into a white-knuckler at the end but the Sox survived with a 6-4 victory thanks to a fine fielding play from second baseman Austin Benning and a heads-up reaction by pitcher Tyler Sawyer.

By Rob Patrick

Bryant Black Sox manager Craig Harrison didn't mince words.

"If we don't win the State this year, I'll be disappointed," he stated as his team prepared to begin the 2009 Senior American Legion season tonight at Bryant High School Field against Hot Springs. "I think we've got the team to do it."

Harrison said, in his 15 years as manager of the Sox (compiling a 468-197 record), he's never come out and said that at the start of a season even though Bryant teams under his guidance with help from his brother Tic, have won three State titles and have finished as runner-up twice. In summer of 2007, the Sox not only won State, they won a Regional and became just the third Legion team from Arkansas to make the World Series.

"We don't have the talent maybe that some of the other teams have had," Harrison related, "but I just feel like the character of this team, if we all do what we're supposed to do, I like our chances.

"Yes, it's a lofty goal," he continued, "but we're going to set high goals. Finishing fifth (in the State) last year was considered — I mean, we're low-class citizens when you compare that to what Bryant is used to and that's what we're setting out to do. Our goal is to win the State."