Vaught baffles Bryant's bats; Texarkana in final

CONWAY -- A 37-minute weather delay Friday did little to derail the efforts of Texarkana's Tanner Vaught.

Bryant's batters did not fare much better against the Razorbacks' pitcher.

Vaught struck out six and allowed only four hits in a 6-1 complete game victory over the Black Sox on a cloudy, muggy afternoon at the University of Central Arkansas' Bear Stadium in the winners bracket finals of the American Legion AAA State Tournament.

"When Tanner's pitching, we know we're going to get strikes," Texarkana Manager Dane Peavy said. "We have to play defense behind him and that's what we did today. I'm very proud of our pitching. I'm very proud of our defense. Our defense has played four straight errorless games, and in amateur baseball that's unheard of."

Texarkana (32-8) is one victory away from earning a trip to the Mid-South Regional, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 2 in New Orleans. Bryant (31-6) will have to fight through the losers bracket to earn a trip to Louisiana.

Bryant will play either Fort Smith in today's first game. Today's first-game winner will have to beat Texarkana twice.

"We're OK," Bryant Manager Darren Hurt said. "We can win three games in a row. We've done it all year. We just can't look beyond [today's] first game. That's the trap game. That's the game you have to survive."

Vaught outdueled Bryant's Alex Shurtleff, who allowed 7 hits and 2 walks in 7⅔ innings. Shurtleff struck out three and allowed only two earned runs.

Vaught gave up a run on two hits in the first inning, but Texarkana responded with four unearned runs in the bottom half of the inning. Kade Garmany's bases-clearing double to the left-center field gap provided all the offense the Razorbacks would need.

"That reassured me," said Vaught, who was a redshirt freshman at Southern Arkansas University last spring. "That let me know they had my back."

Vaught gave up only one hit in the game's final seven innings. Only two Bryant batters managed to get a three-ball count against Vaught, who retired 23 of the final 24 batters he faced.

"He pounded the zone, but the big thing was that he was able to throw his off-speed [pitch] for strikes," Hurt said. "That's huge being able to command that pitch. He was able to mix his pitches up and throwing them all for strikes."

Vaught started to cruise after the first two innings. He set down 11 consecutive batters from the second to fifth innings before Bryant leadoff batter Logan Allen opened the sixth inning with a line drive to left that went for a double.

After a strikeout and a ground out that moved Allen to third, tournament officials called both teams off the field because lightning was spotted in the area. After a 37-minute break, Vaught returned to the mound and got Dylan Hurt to ground out on a 1-1 pitch for the final out of the inning.

Bryant's batters went down in order the next three innings.

"I managed to stay loose during the break," Vaught said. "I felt just as good when I went back out there as I did before the delay."

"We know [Bryant] is going to grind out at-bats," Peavy said. "They're going to try to put pressure on you. We knew coming in that the best thing we could do was keep them off the base paths. I think we did a pretty good job with that."

Bryant's lone run came when Seth Tucker hit a two-out double in the first inning and Dylan Hurt followed with a single to right.

Texarkana took advantage of the game's lone error to score four runs in the bottom of the first. A single by Beau Burson brought home Texarkana's first run. Garmany hit a one-strike pitch from Shurtleff to the left-center field gap to clear the bases.

Texarkana added two runs in the sixth, getting an RBI single from Tyler Moreland and a sacrifice fly from Cole Boyd.

Sports on 07/29/2017