Fort Smith solves its nemesis Bryant
CONWAY — The Fort Smith Sportsmen put a serious dent into Bryant’s chances of repeating as the American Legion senior state champions Friday afternoon.
Ben Klutts smacked a three-run home run and Seth Key tossed a complete-game five-hitter as the Sportsmen landed a 10-1 victory over the Blacksox at Warrior Field on the Hendrix College campus.
The Sportsmen banged out nine hits off of four Blacksox pitchers and took advantage of five Bryant errors in the opening-round game.
Bryant eliminated Fort
Smith in the 2017 state tournament and sent the Sportsmen into the losers bracket in 2016. Bryant also defeated
Fort Smith in the 2015 state championship game.
“Bryant always seems to have our number,” Sportsmen Manager Trey Prieur said. “Man, we just had a good day. We hit the ball hard all day, and Ben Klutts hit that home run to get us going. But I fully expect to see us face Bryant again in this tournament because they are such a quality team.”
Klutts, who plays for Carl Albert (Poteau, Okla.) State College, went 3 for 4 with two singles. His home run was his third of the season.
“I’m just looking for a good pitch to hit, and I’m trying to drive it up the middle every time,” Klutts said. “Today I got two line drives up the middle and a pitch I could drive to left.”
“Ben has a year of college baseball under his belt,” Prieur said. “It took him a while to get adjusted for us but he’s finally got it going. He has been on a tear for us the last two weeks. Teams will put shifts on him but he’s a spray hitter. He just doesn’t look to pull the ball. He looks to hit the ball hard every time he’s at the plate.”
Bryant committed four of its five errors in a six-run sixth inning, but Blacksox Manager Darren Hurt said he was more concerned that his team was not very selective at the plate.
“We haven’t been beaten like that in a long time,” Hurt said. “That was a beatdown. We did not play well today.
“We’ve got to be better at the plate. We’ve got to grind out [at-bats] better. Our philosophy has been to go after the first pitch, but we were swinging at [balls] in the dirt. [Key] was getting ahead in the count and when that happens it changes the whole AB.”
Key struck out four and did not walk a batter.
“Seth has been our No. 1 since last year,” Prieur said. “He’s been bothered by a little arm trouble lately, but we sat him out for about a week and a half. We talked about who to pitch today, and we decided we had to go with our stud. Even when Bryant started to hit him a little bit, he adjusted. Our defense played well, and Seth just commanded the strike zone.”
“He kept us off balance the whole game,” Hurt said. “We didn’t have good ABs, but we had to give him credit for that.”
Bryant scored its only run in the fifth when Myers Buck led off with a triple that got under the glove of a diving Cash Balentine in left field. Scott Schmidt’s slow ground ball to shortstop Brock Thibodeaux provided the Blacksox with their only RBI.
Jake Melton singled and Balentine drew a two-out walk prior to the home run by Klutts, which came on a 3-2 count and gave the Sportsmen a 3-0 lead.
“I was looking for a fastball and I got one down in the zone,” Klutts said. “I got a good swing on it. I got the pitch I was looking for.”
Buck went the first three innings for the Blacksox and took the loss.
Melton increased Fort Smith’s lead to 4-0 with a double to center. Jake Smith, Balentine and Ryan Daggs all drove in runs in the Sportsmen’s sixth inning.
“It’s real simple at this point,” Hurt said. “If we lay another egg, we’re going to the house.
“Can we make this run? Of course we can. We’ve done it before.
“We’ve just got to step up [Saturday] and forget what happened today.”