BRYANT BLACK SOX SENIOR AMERICAN LEGION

2010 FINAL STATS through 31 games

The Texarkana Razorbacks captured the championship of the Senior American Legion Zone 4 Tournament Monday night with a 24-9 win over Benton McClendon's TV and Appliance at Bryant High School Field.

Texarkana, completing a sweep of its three games in the tournament, will be the top seed from Zone 4 at the State Tournament at Burns Park in North Little Rock this weekend. Benton will be the No. 2 seed after clinching the bid with an 8-6 win over regular-season league champion Pine Bluff Simmons on Sunday.

Tournament director Mike Jobe extended his gratitude to all the volunteers who helped with the four-day event. 

BRYANT BLACK SOX

2010 Senior Legion schedule

17-14, 5-3

By Rob Patrick

Every baseball season is different, in big ways and small. But the 2010 season for the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team was unusual in a way that no previous Legion season in Bryant has been.

It was, frankly, a little anti-climactic.

By Rob Patrick

This time, the two extra innings were good for the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team.

Trailing 5-4 after seven, the Sox rallied behind a clutch two-run homer by Hunter Mayall to survive another day and eliminate Little Rock Continental Express, 7-6, at the Zone 4 Tournament Saturday.

While Bryant survived, Benton advanced to the winners bracket final by upsetting top-seeded Pine Bluff Simmons 4-2 Saturday afternoon. But, in the winners bracket final, Texarkana outlasted Benton 9-4 to advance to the championship round. Texarkana, which rallied in the final two innings to beat Bryant on Friday, clinched one of the league’s two State bids in the process.

On Sunday, Bryant, plagued by injuries and ailments that have forced coaches Darren Hurt and Wayne Taylor to piece things together on the fly, will take on Pine Bluff Simmons at 2 p.m. with the winner surviving to take on Benton in the losers bracket final at 5. The late-game victor would advance to play Texarkana for the championship while nabbing the second State bid.

By Rob Patrick

In post-season play, Senior American Legion baseball goes from the seven-inning games of the regular season to nine-inning games — a couple more innings.

So what’s another couple of innings?

Well, on Friday night in the first round of the Zone 4 Tournament, it was the difference between victory and defeat for the Bryant Black Sox.

If the game had ended after seven innings, the Sox would’ve come away with a 5-4 victory over the Texarkana Razorbacks. But, in the eighth inning, Texarkana rallied for four runs then added another in the night to extract a 9-5 victory.

The Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team will host the Zone 4 Tournament at Bryant High School Field beginning this evening at 5 p.m.

The tournament will determine the two teams that will advance to the Senior Legion State Tournament in North Little Rock.

By Rob Patrick

When the Zone 4 Senior American Legion Tournament begins at Bryant High School Field on Friday, pitching depth will be at a premium. Not only is it a double-elimination tournament over four days but the games will last nine innings instead of the regular-season standard seven innings.

So, since their regular-season finale had no impact on the seedings for the tournament, the Bryant Black Sox and Pine Bluff Simmons First Bankers took the opportunity to get some innings in for some of their pitchers. Bryant used four, Pine Bluff five in what turned out to be a tune-up for the upcoming tourney.

Bryant got the best of it with an 8-4 win as Calem Milam, Landon Pickett and Matt Neal turned in five innings of shutout relief. Brady Butler made the start and knocked off the rust in what was his first mound work since June 19.

By Rob Patrick

For five innings in each of their games on Sunday, the Bryant Black Sox and the Texarkana Razorbacks were just about even. But they took turns beating up on each other late as they split a Zone 4 doubleheader, leaving them tied for second in the league pending Bryant’s regular-season finale against top-seeded Pine Bluff on Tuesday.

Right-hander Jordan Taylor came through with a clutch performance on the mound for the Sox in the second game, a 6-1 win in which Bryant snapped a 1-1 tie in the sixth and added on four in the seventh.

In the first game, Bryant’s Dylan Cross dueled Texarkana’s Jon Phillips until the visitors scored six unearned runs in the top of the sixth on the way to a 9-1 victory.

The Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team's doubleheader against Zone 4 rival Texarkana has been postponed by rain until Sunday at 1 p.m.

* * *

For Bryant star pitcher Travis Wood make his third start for the Cincinnati Reds tonight at Philadelphia against the Phillies and ace right-hander Roy Halladay. While, in Arlington, Texas, former Benton and University of Arkansas star, Cliff Lee makes his first start for the Texas Rangers against the Baltimore Orioles after Lee was obtained by trade on Friday from the Seattle Mariners. 

Wood is 0-0 with a 3.86 earned run average since being called up by the Reds earlier this month.

Lee, a former American League Cy Young Award winner, was 8-3 with the Mariners with a 2.34 ERA. He was named to the American League All-Star team earlier this month and, last year, helped the Phillies reach the World Series.