By Rob Patrick

BENTON — Was it the same post-tournament blahs that seem to occur annually after the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team travels afar to play in an event like the Independence Day Classic at Columbia, Tenn.?

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — The Bryant Black Sox and the Pontotoc, Miss., Red Sox have a history. And, as might be expected, it has had its up and its downs. It’s been mostly respectful but it’s also been chippy. Both are proud American Legion programs, perhaps the most successful in recent years from their respective states.

There have been summers in which the Black Sox got the best of the Red Sox — they’re meetings have mostly come at the annual Twin Lakes Classic in Mountain Home — but this season, so far, the Mississippi team has gotten the better of it.

At Mountain Home, it was Pontotoc that ended Bryant’s stay in the first round of the single-elimination championship tournament that followed pool play. And, on Saturday, the Red Sox once again spoiled the Black Sox’ bid for a tourney title, bouncing Bryant from the championship round with a 6-3 decision.

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — Brennan Bullock, running for Caleb Milam, scored on a wild pitch with two out in the bottom of the seventh to give the Bryant Black Sox a 6-5 win over the Jackson, Tenn., Thunder on Saturday morning.

The win gave Bryant, which had already secured the top seed from the pool, a sweep of its four pool games. The Sox were scheduled to begin the single-elimination championship tourney later on Saturday against Pontotoc, Miss., the team that knocked them out of the Twin Lakes Classic in Mountain Home ealier this season.

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — With five players returning from college rosters and six players headed to college to continue their careers this fall (including one to the SEC’s Tennessee Volunteers), the host Columbia, Tenn. Post 19 Senior American Legion team figured have the Bryant Black Sox (made up mostly of 17-year-old players) over-matched.

The two teams met in the third round of pool play on Friday, July 2, at Columbia’s Independence Day Classic and the Sox stunned their hosts with two runs in the top of the seventh on a clutch two-out, two-run single by Lucas Castleberry, to snap a 6-6 tie.

Ben Wells (signed by the University of Arkansas and drafted by the Chicago Cubs) came on to work a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh as the fourth pitcher Black Sox pitcher to save an 8-6 win that clinched the top seed from the pool in the single-elimination championship round set to begin on Saturday.

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — Caleb Milam pitched four innings of shutout relief and the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team rallied for six runs in the top of the fifth to turn a 3-2 deficit into an 8-3 win over J.B. Yeager of Cincinnati, Ohio, on Friday.

The Sox, later, knocked off the host Columbia, Tenn., team, 8-6, to clinch the top spot out of their pool with a game still to play before the championship round at the Independence Day Classic.

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — The Bryant Black Sox and the Brentwood, Tenn. Bulldogs took turns making comebacks Thursday in their opening contest in pool play of the Independence Day Classic.

And the Sox got the proverbial last laugh with a four-run home sixth that turned a 5-3 deficit into a 7-5 victory.

Ben Wells, the third Bryant pitcher, whipped through a 1-2-3 seventh including a pair of strikeouts at the end to earn a save. Blake Davidson, who came in to put out the fire in a three-run sixth, got the win in relief of starter Jordan Taylor.

Brentwood had managed just two runs on four hits against Taylor over the first five innings. In fact, the right-hander had opened the game by setting down the first eight batters in succession.

But the Bulldogs’ three-run sixth had them on top before Bryant came to bat in the bottom of the inning.

The Sox’ rally began with a single by Evan Jobe that brought up the top of the lineup. With one out, Caleb Garrett pulled a shot into left field for a double, setting the table for Hunter Mayall’s game-tying triple into the left-field corner. Taylor then put the Sox ahead with an RBI single. He stole second and, with two down, Lucas Castleberry drove a single up the middle to chase home an insurance run.

By Rob Patrick

Bryant right-hander Blake Davidson out-dueled Lakeside duo Art Slaton and Ryan Montgomery over five innings as the Black Sox Senior American Legion team edged the AA Rams, 2-1, in an abbreviated contest Monday night at Bryant High School Field.

Brennan Bullock’s two-out, two-run triple in the bottom of the first proved to be the difference for the Sox who improve to 10-9 overall this season. It was the team-high fourth three-bagger for the speedy Bullock.

By Rob Patrick

Back in the day, before the Bryant High School baseball field was built about 10 years ago, the Hornets and the American Legion Bryant Black Sox played their games at Ashley Park on what is now the Babe Ruth field. For high school age players, it was the proverbial bandbox. Homers flew out of there with regularity. Coaches had to plan for that. No lead seemed big enough.

So, when the high school made plans to build a new field on the campus, it was certain to be bigger.

As it turned out, it was much bigger and what was once a game’s worth of homers turned into a season’s worth.

On Friday night, the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team wouldn’t even have had to be playing on the little Ashley Park field. They could’ve been playing on a field with just typical high school dimensions and Brady Butler would probably have hit three home runs.

By Rob Patrick

PINE BLUFF — It has become, over the years, a regular occurrence. When the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team returns from a distant tournament like Mountain Home’s Twin Lakes Classic or the Tournament of Champions in Alton, Ill., they struggle in their next game.

And, in recent years, that game has been against Zone 4 rival Pine Bluff Simmons First Bank. Last year after the Mountain Home tourney, the Sox had three days before they played the Bankers then eked out a 3-1 win.

MOUNTAIN HOME — The Pontotoc, Miss., Red Sox featured 11 college-age players including nine that are on college baseball rosters. So, it’s no surprise that they won the 24th Twin Lakes Classic in Mountain Home over the weekend.

And along the way, they ended the weekend for the Bryant Black Sox.

But the 14-8 loss proved to be a character game for the Black Sox who were in danger of being run-ruled twice and, as was the case for much of the tournament, had more than their share of controversial calls go against them.