By ANN THARP Special to The Leader
The Sylvan Hills junior Bruins American Legion team traveled to Jacksonville Monday evening and extended their record to 2-0 with a 16-2 win over the Gwatney Chevrolet junior team. The other Sylvan Hills win was over North Little Rock. Jacksonville is now 6-4.
Neither team scored in the opening frame.
The lead off hitter, Zac Cook, reached for Sylvan Hills, but Jacksonville pitcher, Ethan Gray, got two strike outs and a ground out to end the inning, stranding Cook on third.
Jacksonville had the bases loaded by way of walks in the bottom of the inning, but Sylvan Hills pitcher, Jack Haley, got his counterpart, Gray, to ground out to second to end the threat.
Jacob Galiano started things for the Bruins in the second with a double down the left field line.
He reached third on a pitch in the dirt and scored on a wild pitch to the screen. Brice Cagle singled to score Hunter Allen who had walked, and Stone Stanley grounded out to second, but scored Gage Taylor, who had reached on an error. Cagle scored the final run of the half inning to give Sylvan Hills the 4-0 lead.
Jacksonville answered with two in their part of the frame to cut the advantage in half. Axton Ramick led off with a hit to right, and Ryan Ready reached on an infield hit. Robert Johnson moved the runners with a sacrifice bunt. A balk was then called, scoring Ramick and moving Ready to third. Clay Burrows singled to left to score Ready and the score was 4-2 after two.
The Bruins had a huge third inning with 12 batters coming to the plate and eight of them scoring. Galiano led off with a hit, following by a double by Hunter Allen. Taylor was hit by a pitch, Cagle singled again, and Stanley walked. Cook got his second hit of the game, Connor Young was hit by a pitch, Will Cartwright reached on an errant throw to the plate, and all scored before the third out was recorded. Galiano also picked up his third hit, another double, but did not score again.
Jackson Pope took the mound for Sylvan Hills in the bottom of the third. Randy Davis had a base hit down the left field line for Jacksonville, but no runs scored and the score remained 12-2.
The Bruins added four more runs in the top of the fourth and final inning to set the final margin of 16-2. Nick Reeves had a base hit and scored one of the runs, and Cagle scored his third of the contest. Justin Dennis had moved to the mound to pitch for Gwatney in the fourth, and Ramick had taken over in the second and gotten the final two outs.
Adonis Fuller entered the game and led off with a base hit to right center for Jacksonville in the bottom of the fourth, but Pope got the next three batters out to end the game.
“We hit well,” Sylvan Hills coach Matt Presson commented. “We took advantage of the errors they made when we had guys on. We threw strikes and made plays, so you can’t ask for anything other than that. Overall, I thought it was a good game for them.”
Galiano had the three hits for Sylvan Hills and scored twice. Cook had two hits, scored two runs and also reached on an error and base on balls. Cagle and Allen each had two hits. Burrows, Jaylon McGee, Davis, Ramick, and Ready each had one hit for Gwatney.