Bryant Baseball Team Wins; Little Rock Junior Deputy Team Wins in Miss.

Once they could finally play, the 9-year-olds of Bryant and the Little Rock Junior Deputy “Lumber Jacks” team put on a show almost as electrifying as the lightning that hit all around the Little Rock Junior Deputy complex earlier Monday evening.

Bryant withstood a late Little Rock Junior Deputy team rally, with relief pitcher Luke Dreher getting the final two outs with the tying run at the plate, as the Saline County team won the Cal Ripken 9-year-old Southwest Regional. The event drew teams from a seven-state region.

There is no Cal Ripken World Series for 9 or 11 year olds (only the 10 and 12 year old teams advance to a World Series), so Bryant’s season ends with a coveted titled obtained on Junior Deputy’s home turf.

The game could have gone badly for Bryant early, as the Lumber Jacks plated one run and had the bases loaded with no outs in the home half of the first inning, and Bryant already into its relief corps Logan White on the mound. But two straight infield fly outs and a force out got Bryant out of any more trouble.

Then, Bryant struck for four runs in the second inning, thanks two two errors, a hit batsman and singles by Turner Sellinger and Connor Martin. Bryant padded its lead to 7-1 in the fifth on three walks, an error and Cade Parker’s single.

The Lumber Jacks were, to that point, stymied by the pitching work by White and Colby Morrow, who had started the game and returned in the fourth inning. Junior Deputy got one run back thanks to a Bryant error but missed an opportunity to add more. Finally, the home team’s bats awoke in its last chance as Fortner Tiffee started the sixth inning with a single and Julian Weinheimer ripped  hard hit to left field. The Lumber Jacks pushed across three runs and had a runner at first base with one out, but Dreher induced a fly out to right field — Cade Parker had a solid defensive game there — and a ground out to end it.

The finalists had to wait 2 1/2 hours to complete the last innings of their semifinal wins. Bryant put away Oak Grove, Mississippi, 12-8 while the Lumber Jacks scored two in the fifth inning to break a 4-all tie and eliminate Camden 6-4.

The tournament featured 14 teams in pool play for three days before moving to a single elimination bracket on Sunday.

LITTLE ROCK JUNIOR DEPUTY RANGERS WIN 11-YEAR-OLD SW REGIONAL

The Little Rock Junior Deputy 11-year-old 50/70 All-Stars, dubbed the Rangers, went undefeated in the Cal Ripken Southwest Regional in Gulfport, Miss., to capture a championship on Monday. The Little Rock team, which defeated Benton 9-4 in seven innings in the semifinal round, blanked Mountain Home 3-0 for the championship.

Zac White wins the MVP in Mississippi

Zac White, who pitched in both the semifinal and final rounds, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. White pitched three innings in the title game as the Rangers held Mountain Home to one hit while pounding 12 of their own. Matthew Gephardt had three of the Rangers hits in the final and Warren Heird knocked in two runs. Gephardt also allowed no hits in his three innings of work on the mound.

A wild pitch scoring Grant Smithson started a five-run outburst in the top of the seventh inning for Little Rock in the extra-inning win over Benton. Pitching again was solid for Little Rock with only two hits allowed, but Benton was still able to overcome an early 4-0 deficit with four runs in the fourth inning. Davis Hawkins finished up the game after the Rangers had taken a 9-4 lead in the seventh.

The Little Rock Junior Deputy team was managed by Jeff Poe. The Rangers defeated Benton for the Arkansas state championship in late June in Stuttgart to advance to the Regional.

 

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