By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
GASTONIA, N.C. – The simple things weren’t simple Thursday for the Bossier Phillies in their opening game of the American Legion Baseball Mid-South Regional, so they’ll have breakfast at the ballpark today.
Bossier (18-3) will have to battle through the loser’s bracket to make a third straight regional title for a third consecutive World Series berth. After an error-prone 5-1 loss to Bryant (Ark.), the Phillies play at 9:30 EDT this morning against Columbia (Tenn.), which fell 5-2 to Tupelo (Miss.) in the Thursday morning tournament opener.
The double-elimination bracket runs through Sunday. Bossier coach Dane Peavy has faith his team can get that far but it’s going to require a return to form after committing five errors and getting only three hits.
“We’ve been in this position before,” he said. “I think our guys were just stunned by what happened. They expected to come out and things would flow our way, but we ran into some adversity and didn’t bounce back. Hopefully we get started better and we’ll be clicking on all cylinders.”
Tanner Webb will take the mound this morning after throwing 6 2/3 innings of 1-hit ball July 13 in a state tournament win.
“We have our work cut out for us in the morning,” said Peavy after a Waffle House supper late Thursday. “I feel pretty good with Tanner on the mound. He gives us our best shot to bounce back, and then hopefully we take it one game at a time from there.”
The Phillies committed five errors and the Black Sox scored three unearned runs, including a throwing error by pitcher Bud Burns allowing Bryant a 2-0 lead after three innings.
“Bud threw well (scattering eight hits, only one for extra bases), and was a victim of his own circumstances. Had bases loaded with no outs twice, got out of it the first time, but the second time he fielded a (two-out, bases-full) squibber and just threw it over the first baseman’s head.
“We did a good job to come right back and get a run, but couldn’t get more out of that (fourth) inning and we didn’t find a way to score again,” said Peavy.
Brody Turnipseed led off Bossier’s fourth with a walk and a stolen base. He scampered to third on a bad throw by the catcher, then scored on a sacrifice fly from Jackson Waller. The Phillies stranded a runner at second base, and managed only two singles afterward and never got into scoring position.
Bryant’s outfield positioning paid off, said Peavy.
“Their defensive approach is play very deep in the outfield and take away the doubles, all the gap shots. We hit 4-5 that I thought were pretty good but they got over and caught them, and they made a couple nice plays in the infield.
“It wasn’t falling for us, but at the same time our approaches weren’t very good. We didn’t gee and haw like we usually do, and we floundered from that point forward,” he said.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com