White Hall’s 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars are in hot pursuit of a state championship.
    Managed by Chris Cranford, the squad recently won a district crown at Hot Springs. White Hall won the title game 2-0. In earlier games, White Hall defeated Benton 15-5 and Pine Bluff Seabrook 16-6. Pacesetters for the locals included Clay Cannon, Hunter Hale and Chris Smith.
    White Hall opened state tournament play here Friday, July 17, with an 8-4 comeback win over Camden. Sparking the win were Zak Gober, Hale, Landon Reed, Smith and Jeremy Sprinkle.
    Since, the locals have beaten Little Rock Junior Deputy 9-4, Bryant 10-3, Hot Spring County 6-0 and Lonoke 10-2.
    White Hall was scheduled to meet the winner of a Tuesday afternoon Bryant-Little Rock Junior Deputy match in a Tuesday night championship clash, but the games were rained out.
    Following is The Benton Courier’s account of the weekend’s Bryant-White Hall game:
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    BENTON – The White Hall 14s walked in, walked 14 times, and walked out of Bernard Holland Park with a 10-3 win over defending World Series champion Bryant in the 14-year old Babe Ruth State Tournament.
    Bryant walked the bases loaded in each of the first four innings. They were able to escape from the first three innings unscathed.
    White Hall had a prime opportunity in the second when Bryant starting pitcher Justin Vincent walked Justin McCarty to lead off the inning. Shortly thereafter, Vincent erased McCarty with a pick off throw to first base.
    Vincent then walked the next three White Hall hitters to load the bases. At that point, he settled down long enough to strike out pitcher Chris Smith and Hunter Hale to keep zeros on the scoreboard.
    Riley Hall relieved Vincent in the third with two outs and the bases loaded again and struck out White Hall's Michael Acosta to thwart that bases-loaded threat.
    But Hall wasn't as lucky in the fourth. He walked Landon Reed to lead off the inning, then hit Smith. Hale followed with an infield single to load the bases.
    Hall then struck out Joseph Stewart and got Tyler Carr to ground into a fielder's choice to third. Daniel Richards threw home to Blain Jackson for the second out.
    But the bases were still loaded. Hall got two strikes on Clay Cannon before hitting him in the arm driving in the game's first run.
    That brought up McCarty. In his last at-bat, he walked and was picked off first drawing the ire of first base coach Skip Carr. McCarty made up for it in a big way. After running the count full, McCarty turned on high pitch from Hall and sent it deep over the left field fence for a grand slam and a 5-0 lead for White Hall.
    Bryant got two of the runs back in the bottom half of the fourth. Tyler Nelson hit a sharp single to left in front of Marcus Wilson's ground rule double that put both runners in scoring position. An RBI groundout to short by Daniel Richards and a sacrifice fly by Tyler Green cut White Hall's lead to 5-2.
    It stayed that way until the top of the sixth when White Hall relief pitcher Jeremy Sprinkle hit a three-run homerun to put the game far out of Bryant's reach.
    Bryant head coach Jimmy Parker said before his team's first game that they had to throw strikes.
    Four Bryant pitchers struggled with control giving out 14 free passes and hitting three White Hall batters. They did manage to strike out nine and force White Hall to strand 15 runners.
    Both White Hall pitchers held the champs in check for the most part and helped with their bats. Bryant managed five hits and walked just twice. Smith joined Sprinkle and McCarity with a solo homer to lead off the seventh.