By Rob Patrick

The Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team racked up 19 hits in two seven-inning games against the Texarkana Junior Razorbacks on Saturday, and more than half of those hits — 10 in all — went for extra bases.

And, despite the fact that the Razorbacks piled up 22 hits in the two contests, the Sox prevailed twice, 8-7 and 5-4.

PEARCY — Tyler Brown and Ozzie Hurt combined to toss a five-inning one-hit shutout and Tanner Tolbert cracked a two-run homer as the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team rolled to a 8-0 win over Lake Hamilton on Monday night.

By Rob Patrick

Trent Rivers cracked three hits including a three-run triple to highlight a five-run third as the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team rallied from an early 3-1 deficit to capture a 10-4 win over the Cabot Junior team at BHS field on Monday night.

The win improved the Sox Juniors to 4-1-1 going into Tuesday’s game at Lake Hamilton and a doubleheader at Benton on Friday.

By Rob Patrick

The first two batters for the Lake Hamilton Wolves Junior American Legion team smacked singles. Andrew Seymour’s was a blooper and Caleb Marsh’s was a pretty good shot up the middle.

But those turned out to be the only hits the Wolves would muster against the Bryant Black Sox duo of Matt Neal and Tyler Brown who combined to strike out 10 in the five-inning contest.Bryant won by run-rule, 8-0.

By Rob Patrick

SHERWOOD — Josh Pultro hadn’t hit in a game since the last Bryant High School junior varsity game on May 10.

Tanner Tolbert hadn’t hit in a game since he was playing Babe Ruth ball two summers ago.

Both stepped to the plate on Tuesday night in the Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion contest against the Sylvan Hills Bruins and hammered the ball. Pultro went 2 for 2 and drove in three runs while Tolbert went 2 for 3 with an RBI in a 13-4 romp in four innings.

The game also featured a rare straight steal of home by Hunter Mayall during Bryant’s eight-run second.

By Rob Patrick

BAUXITE — The Bryant Black Sox Junior American Legion team didn’t make it to the championship round of the wood bat tournament at Bauxite High School after suffering an 11-4 loss to the Sheridan AA team but head coach Darren Hurt said his team got what it needed from the tourney, short of winning it.

The top two teams from each of two four-team pools advanced to Monday’s championship round. Bryant, finishing 1-1-1, matched Maumelle, the team the Sox tied 0-0 on Saturday, but the first tie breaker was runs allowed and the 11 that Sheridan put up proved too many for the Sox who shut out two opponents on Saturday.

By Rob Patrick

“It’s the first time I’ve ever scored one run in two games and didn’t lose,” declared Bryant Black Sox coach Darren Hurt after his team completed its second game of the day in the Bauxite Tournament on Saturday.

The Sox’s first game finished in a scoreless tie. In the second, Dylan Cross and Quinton Motto combined on a two-hit shutout and Bryant eked out a run for a 1-0 win over the Little Rock Continental Express Junior team.

The tournament is being played with wooden bats, which limits the offense. The sweet spot on a wood bat is probably less than half the size of the much more forgiving metal bats that most amateur teams use normally. So the games often boil down to which team pitches best, which one avoids defensive mistakes, limiting their opponent’s opportunities.

Besides allowing just two hits, between them, Cross and Motto didn’t walk anybody. Cross hit a batter.In all, Bryant pitchers threw 13 scoreless innings in the two games.

“The pitchers threw well today,” Hurt acknowledged. “I think the highest pitch count was 42. Every one of them was effective. The defense played well too.”

By Rob Patrick

BAUXITE — The last time a baseball team from Bryant faced left-hander Brittain Ibbotson, it was the high school’s Hornets against North Little Rock in the quarterfinals of the Class 7A State Tournament.

This summer, Ibbotson is playing for the Maumelle AA American Legion team (small town 19-and-under) and he faced the Bryant Black Sox Junior Legion team in the opener in pool play for both teams at the wood bat tournament in Bauxite.

The Sox could not scratch out a hit against him through 4 1/3 innings and wound up with just one hit against reliever Jacob Stripling, a two-out single by Dylan Cross in the bottom of the sixth. But Bryant’s Tyler Brown, Matt Neal and Jordan Taylor matched the shutout work of the Maumelle duo in what turned out to be a six-inning scoreless tie called for time.

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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.