Kehrees, Daniel spark Sox
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
Alex Kehrees had three hits, each came with two outs and drove in a run including a double in the bottom of the sixth that completed a five-run outburst that gave the Bryant Black Sox AAA American Legion team a run-rule win over Cabot, 10-2, on Wednesday, July 18.
Kehrees and the Bryant offense helped support lefty Trent Daniel who turned in one of his best pitching performances of the summer. In six innings, Daniel scattered six hits, walked just one and struck out seven. Both of Cabot’s runs were unearned.
The win improved the Sox to 27-5 overall going into the final weekend of the regular season including a game at home with defending State champion Pine Bluff Simmons First National Bank with a share of the Zone 4 regular-season championship on the line.
Kehrees was coming off a rough night at the plate in his previous start at first base. While his teammates were racking up hits in a 12-0 romp over Little Rock Blue, he took the hat trick, fanning all three times he came up. But his 3-for-4 night against Cabot no doubt salved those wounds.
In fact, eight of the Sox’ 10 runs scored with two outs including a tying run in the second and a tiebreaker in the fourth, one of two in the fifth and all five in the sixth.
Cabot, apparently using the game as a tune-up for its upcoming District Tournament, used five pitchers in the contest and none of them went unscathed. Starter Jon Parker gave up runs in each of his two innings. In the first, he walked Joey Winiecki then appeared to have him picked off but the speedy Winiecki beat a throw to second and continued on to third when the ball got past the shortstop and rolled into centerfield. With the infield back, Jake Jackson put the ball in play and picked up an RBI with a grounder to short.
Cabot got its two runs in the top of the second after a two-out error kept Parker’s plate appearance alive. He then beat out an infield hit. Sam Bates, who had walked to start the inning, went to third then scored on a double by Justin Free. Jackson Chism singled in Parker but, with runners at the corners and the top of the order up, Daniel induced a fly to right. Jackson made a fine running catch and from that point on, Daniel limited Cabot to three hits with no one getting past second.
He pitched around a two-out infield hit in the third, a one-out double n the fifth and a lead-off single in the sixth.
The Sox tied it on Kehrees’ first clutch hit. Ryan Wilson had singled with one down and swiped second. With two away, Kehrees cracked a single up the middle to bring him home.
In the fourth against Cabot’s second hurler Chad Bryant, the Sox snapped the tie. Winiecki slapped a single to left with two down, stole second and scored when Jackson looped a single into right.
Devin Hurt walked and, on a hit and run, Tyler Pickett stroked a single to right-center, to start the fifth against lefty Justin Haas. Pickett stole second and Tyler Sawyer picked up an RBI with a groundout. Kehrees followed with a bouncer up the middle on a 2-2 delivery. Free, the Cabot second baseman, flagged it down but Kehrees beat his throw to first, making it 5-2.
Bates started the sixth and fanned the first two he faced before Aaron Davidson, who also had three hits in the game, belted a double into the gap in left-center. Hurt was hit by a pitch and Pickett walked to load the bases and Josh Brown came on to relieve.
His first pitch was wild allowing Davidson to score. He then balked in Hurt. Wilson singled in Pickett and, after Sawyer stroked a single to right, taking second on a late throw to third, a wild pitch brought Wilson home, putting the Sox one away from a run-rule win. Kehrees got down in the count 0-2, fouled off a third pitch then ripped his game-ending double into the left-field corner.
