LEVELLAND, Texas — After the Siloam Springs All-Stars rallied to take a 7-6 lead in the top[more] of the seventh inning, the Bryant All-Stars scored two of their own in the bottom of the inning for a walk-off win in the second round of the Southwest Regional Tournament for Babe Ruth 14-year-old teams.
It was quite a struggle after Bryant buried Brownsville, Texas in their opener of Friday, 30-5.
With the win, the Bryant team advances to the winners bracket final on Sunday at 4 p.m., against either Tri-County, Texas or Lake Charles, La. The winner will advance to the championship round.
Bryant is managed by Jerry East. The players are Logan Allen, Drew Brown, Cameron Coleman, Jake East, Lawson Fincher, Jeffrey Hastings, Dylan Hurt, Austin Kelly, Hayden Knowles, Preston Kyzer, Garrett Misenheimer, Aaron Orender, Kyle Sahr, Alex Shurtleff and Diego Vargas.
Bryant loaded the bases in the seventh with one down. Allen drew a walk and Hastings reached on an error before East singled to fill the bags for Orender who’s grounder to short was misplayed allowing both Allen and Hastings to score.
The seesaw battle was tied 5-5 after Siloam Springs scored twice in the top of the fifth and Bryant scored twice in the bottom of the inning. In the sixth, Shurtleff came on in relief of Hurt, the starter and set Siloam Springs down in order, throwing nine strikes and inducing two infield pops and a strikeout.
In the bottom of the sixth, Shurtleff yanked a one-out double down the left-field line and Misenheimer followed with a shot to deep center for a two-bagger that put Bryant ahead.
In the top of the seventh, Shurtleff struck out the first two Siloam batters before an error extended the inning. With a runner at second, Bryant came within a strike of ending it but a drive to the gap in left-center chased home the tying run. Again, two outs away from ending the inning, A drive to right was misplayed and Siloam had the 7-6 lead.
A three-run second had Siloam out front early. A trio of Bryant errors contributed to the uprising.
A run in the bottom of the second broke the ice for Bryant. Misenheimer slugged a double to left and, with two down, Coleman cracked a single to right to bring him in.
After Hurt worked a 1-2-3 third, Bryant whittled another run off the margin. Orender singled to center then Shurtleff hit a bouncer to short. But an errant throw to first allowed Orender to take third. The duo executed a double steal to get the run home, making it 3-2.
Hurt worked around a two-out error and a single to keep it a one-run game going into the bottom of the fourth. Kelly was hit by a pitch, stole second, took third on Allen’s bunt single and scored on a base hit by East to tie the game.
Bryant had a chance to take the lead when a walk to Orender loaded the bases but Siloam Springs escaped with the game even.
That led to the fifth when both teams scored twice. Siloam’s came on a one-out single, a stolen base, a two-out single and an outfield error.
In Bryant’s fifth, Hurt walked with one down, Kelly singled to center and, with two out, Allen came through with a clutch hit to right-center that drove in Hurt. Hastings’ singled to right to drive in Kelly with the tying tally.
