What were the biggest Bryant sports stories of 2009? 

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THANKS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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By Rob Patrick

Former Major League pitcher and major college head baseball coach Geoff Zahn returns to Bryant this week at Diamond Sports.

Along with private lessons Thursday and Friday, Zahn will conduct a pitching clinic entitled “Preseason Conditioning for Pitchers” on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to noon. Fee is $60 per player. (A coach may attend free with four paying players.)

“I’ve been coming to (central Arkansas) for several years and I’ve been giving what I call a total pitching clinic where we talk about mechanics, I videotape the guys and then show them up on the screen next to somebody like (Roger) Clemons or Mariano Rivera and just give them an overview of their motion compared to those guys, the Major League guys, and what they can do to improve,” said Zahn, a lefty who pitched for 11 seasons in the big leagues with the Dodgers, Cubs, Twins and Angels. “I give them conditioning exercises and we talk about strategy a little bit and arm care, the care and prevention of injuries.

2009 BRYANT JUNIOR BLACK SOX STATS

Final, unofficial through 32 games

Name AB R H D T HR BI *BB SO SB BA

Chris Joiner 79 32 34 5 1 0 17 18 8 5 .430

Evan Jobe 75 26 30 5 0 0 16 28 11 7 .400

Dylan Pritchett 101 26 40 8 1 0 27 18 4 3 .396

Landon Pickett 91 24 32 9 1 0 29 23 9 1 .352

Lucas Castleberry 95 29 33 7 2 0 22 9 7 7 .347

Brady Bulter 20 8 6 0 1 0 6 9 5 1 .300

Reese O’Rourke 10 4 3 1 0 0 1 3 3 0 .300

Caleb Milam 68 18 20 5 1 0 14 16 9 1 .294

Tyler Brown 88 24 25 2 0 0 13 20 9 2 .284

Blake Davidson 44 10 12 0 1 0 8 7 8 0 .273

Brodie Nixon 76 16 19 3 0 0 13 17 14 6 .250

Austin Johnson 27 4 5 2 0 0 5 0 10 0 .185

Matt Neal 21 3 3 0 0 0 5 4 6 0 .143

Tyler Gattin 54 3 7 0 0 0 4 6 11 0 .130

Chris Jackson 10 3 1 0 0 0 2 6 7 0 .100

Steven Lecamu 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 .000

Totals 861 230 270 47 8 0 182 184 123 33 .314

Name W-L IP R ER H *BB SO **ERA

Landon Pickett 5-2 48 24 21 50 17 32 3.06

Blake Davidson 2-1 22.1 17 11 20 15 24 3.45

Matt Neal 3-2 41.2 37 21 40 29 34 3.53

Caleb Milam 3-2 26 26 14 29 13 18 3.77

Dylan Pritchett 3-2 29 29 22 33 28 29 5.31

Jacob Clark 1-0 9 10 8 18 5 6 6.22

Brady Butler 2-1 4.1 7 4 6 3 6 6.46

Austin Johnson 0-2 8 15 12 14 7 10 10.50

Tyler Brown 0-0 4 15 7 16 6 2 12.25

Totals 19-12 192.1 180 120 226 123 161 4.37

Saves: Milam 1.

*includes hit by pitch.

**based on earned runs per seven innings.

#does not include two forfeits.

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

SHERIDAN — The Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team was down to its last three outs. They trailed the rival Little Rock Continental Express team, 5-4, going into the seventh inning. The two teams had met four previous times during the season and Bryant had won three times but it was beginning to look like this might be Continental's day.

The Express had snapped a 4-4 tie with a run in the bottom of the fifth then escaped a bases-loaded situation in the sixth as the two teams battled in the losers bracket of the Junior Legion State Tournament on Sunday.

After right-hander Blake Davidson, on in relief of starter Matt Neal, eased to a 1-2-3 home sixth with a pair of strikeouts, the Sox came up in the top of the seventh.

Brodie Nixon, on a 1-1 count, was hit by a pitch from Express starter Hayes Riser. A pitch later, Evan Jobe rifled his third hit of the game to center to fuel the Bryant hopes. And when Caleb Milam got down a bunt, it appeared the Sox were going to have the potential tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Continental first baseman Adam Hamaker charged, fielded the ball and fired to third. The throw was late as Nixon slid in but he wound up over-sliding the bag. Though it appeared he scrambled back in safely, third baseman Taylor Vanbrevlet applied the tag and Nixon was called out.

What might've been a momentum changer, wasn't for long. A wild pitch moved Jobe to third and Milam to second with pinch-hitter Tyler Brown coming to the plate. Brown, normally the starter at second base, hadn't made the start because he wasn't feeling well. But when he was called on in the seventh, he came through, blooping one into shallow right-center. Despite a valiant diving attempt, Continental second baseman Ivan Tate couldn't catch it. Jobe scored the tying run and Milam reached third.

While Riser received a visit from his coach, Bryant coaches Brad Chism and Dustin Tinkler huddled with the next batter Blake Davidson. When play resumed, Davidson squared around on the first pitch and got the bunt down on a squeeze play that got Milam home with the go-ahead run. On a close play at first, Davidson was called out but the Sox had the lead.

Chris Joiner followed with a single but Brown was held up at third in respect for the arm of center fielder Justin Williams. Riser got out of the jam at that point and Continental got one more shot.

But Davidson got Tate, the Express' tough lead-off man, to bounce out to Brown at second to start the inning. Josh Alberius followed with a single but was forced out at second on a grounder to Lucas Castleberry by Vanbrevlet. A relay to first was late. Hamaker drew a walk to push the potential tying run to second then Davidson got the first two strikes in on Williams, who then cracked a liner down the right-field line that Milam raced over and grabbed to end the game.

JUNIOR AMERICAN LEGION STATE TOURNAMENT

At Sheridan

Friday, July 10

Game 1 — Sheridan 14, Sylvan Hills 0

Game 2 — Jonesboro 9, Texarkana 4  

Game 3 — Paragound 4, BRYANT 2

Game 4 — LR Continental Express 10, North Little Rock 0 

Saturday, July 11

Game 5 — BRYANT 11, Sylvan Hills 1 (Sylvan Hills eliminated)

Game 6 — Texarkana 15, North Little Rock 0 (North Little Rock eliminated)

Game 7 — Sheridan 10, Jonesboro 5

Game 8 — Paragould 9, LR Continental Express 7

Sunday, July 12

Game 9 — Texarkana 8, Jonesboro 3 (Jonesboro eliminated)

Game 10 — BRYANT 6, LR Continental Express 5 (LR Continental Express eliminated)

Game 11 — Sheridan 12, Paragould 2 (winners bracket final)

Monday, July 13

Game 12 — Texarkana 12, Paragould 4 

Game 13 — Sheridan 10, BRYANT 5

Tuesday, July 14

Game 14 — Sheridan 5, Texarkana 3

By Rob Patrick

SHERIDAN — Something about the end of a season staring you in the face can sharpen the focus of a baseball team and, on Saturday, July 11, that focus served the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team in an elimination game at the 2009 Junior Legion State tourney.

Behind a solid pitching performance by right-hander Caleb Milam and a 12-hit attack that included three by Landon Pickett, who wound up a homer short of the cycly, and two each by Milam and Brodie Nixon, the Sox lived to play another day with an 11-1 victory over the Sylvan Hills Bruins. 

The Sox, who improved to 18-11-1 on the season, are set to play again on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., against a team to be determined based on the rest of the games on Saturday.

SHERIDAN — The Paragould Glen Sain Junior American Legion team, fresh from an upset championship at the Zone 2 District tournament, snapped a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh then held on for a 4-2 win over the Bryant Black Sox in the State tourney opener on Friday.

In a pitcher's duel between Bryant's Landon Pickett and Paragould's Alex Markam, Glen Sain put together three hits in the seventh including an RBI double by Tanner Murray and an RBI single by Dayton Flannery to snap the tie. Pickett came back to retire the next two batters to keep it 4-2.

SHERIDAN — The Bryant Junior Black Sox suffered a 4-2 loss to Zone 1 champion Paragould in the opener of the Junior American Legion State tournament on Friday. They will play at noon on Saturday against the loser of the late game between Sheridan and Sylvan Hills.

By Rob Patrick

SHERIDAN — Sure, it would've been nice to win the District tournament championship. It probably would've meant a little better seed as the State tournament, maybe a marginally lesser opponent in the first round. They'd have gone into it on a more positive note but as far as winning the tournament — really, the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team has bigger fish to fry. 

So do the Sheridan Yellowjackets, of course. And if the two teams meet again, it will be on a bigger stage. Sheridan hosts the State tourney beginning Friday and, with an 11-1 win over Bryant in the winner-take-all final of the District, the top seed from Zone 4 will belong to the Jackets. Bryant will be seeded second from the Zone and Little Rock Continental Express will be slotted in where the Host team would be.

The brackets for the tournament are forthcoming.