EL DORADO — The Bryant 6-year-old All-Stars reached the championship of the Regional Tournament here on Sunday, July 26, having gone undefeated through the State tourney and the Regional to that point. That included a 4-3 win over Cabot in the semifinals earlier in the day.
But, in the final, they ran into the Mississippi Bandits who built a 6-1 lead after two innings then held on for a 9-6 victory to capture the title.
The State champion and Regional runner-up Bryant 6 year old All-Stars, coached by Matt Orender with assistance from Patrick Schroeder and Jimmy Pennington, include Luke Bessire, Clay Curtis, Cooper Davis, Josh Day, Peyton Dillon, Gavin Glasgow, Austin Ledbetter, Jagger Littleton, Justin Orender, Brett Pennington, Austin Schroeder, and Blaine Sears.[more]
Mississippi 9, Bryant 6
Bryant pulled within 7-6 after four innings but the Bandits managed two more runs in the top of the fifth then made the plays in the bottom of the inning to retire Bryant 1-2-3 for the championship.
Mississippi had produced a 2-0 lead in the top of the first then Bryant got on the board in the bottom of the inning. With two out, Ledbetter singled. He scored when Glasgow belted a double to right-center.
In turn, the Bandits cracked four doubles on the way to scoring four times in the top of the second and the resulting 6-1 lead held until the bottom of the third. Having kept Mississippi from scoring for the first time in the top of the inning, Bryant’s to rally started with a two-out single by Schroeder. Pennington singled as well then Ledbetter plugged the gap in right-center for a two-run double to make it 6-3.
The Bandits got one in the top of the fourth which proved to be the difference after the Stars continued their comeback in the home half of the frame.
For Bryant, Orender and Littleton cracked inning-opening singles. With one out, Bessire had a hit to make it 7-4 then Dillon’s hit drove in two more.
But Mississippi put together four hits in the top of the fifth to bump the lead to 9-6.
Bryant 4, Cabot 3
Down to their last out, the Bryant Stars rallied for two runs in the bottom of the fifth to oust Cabot and advance to the championship game. Dillon drove in the winning run with a shot to center.
Trailing 3-2, Bryant started the rally with a single by Littleton with one out. Curtis grounded into a force but reached first safely to avoid the game-ending doubleplay. Bessire singled and Day beat out an infield hit to load the bases for Dillon who chased home Curtis and Bessire with the tying and winning runs.
Cabot had taken the lead with two runs in the top of the fourth. The only other scoring came in the second when Cabot took a 1-0 lead and Bryant countered with its first two to grab a lead that lasted until that fourth-inning uprising for Cabot.
Glasgow singled to start Bryant’s second-inning outburst. He scored when Orender belted a double. Littleton’s double brought Orender in with the go-ahead tally.
