Excited Hornets persevere for win at Conway
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
CONWAY — After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time all season, with only one win in their last four AAAAA-South Conference games, with senior outfielder/pitcher Cody Dreher still sidelined with an ankle injury and with news that three-year starter, lead-off man and centerfielder Matt White might miss the rest of the season, the Bryant Hornets needed something good to happen to them when they took the field at Conway High School Thursday, April 11.
White, hitting .392 and with an on-base percentage far beyond that, was undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his appendix as his teammates played the non-conference game against their future conference rival, Conway. And the Hornets did their stricken teammate proud with a tenacious 13-12 win in nine innings.
The Hornets had the game won twice, but it took a third time to get the victory. They led 9-5 at one point, 9-7 going into the bottom of the seventh. But Conway rallied to tie it. In the eighth, the Hornets struck for three runs that appeared to be enough. But, again, Conway tied it and sent it to the ninth. Again, the Hornets set the stage for victory by pushing across a run and this time, it held.
Junior Daniel Minton, seeing his first varsity mound time since Feb. 23, pitched 3 2/3 innings of relief. Though victimized in those two game-tying rallies, Minton struck out two and retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth to seal the victory.
The win came despite the fact that Conway racked up 17 hits and benefited from 12 walks by a trio of Bryant pitchers. But those Hornet hurlers battled through the constant barrage and forced the Wampus Cats to strand 15 baserunners.
Defensively, it was Conway that was in a giving mode. The Cats committed a whopping 10 errors in the game. Only five of Bryant’s 13 runs were earned.
Cody Graddy smashed two home runs, had three hits and drove in four to set the pace for the Hornets offensively. Derek Chambers, Kevin Littleton and Scott Yant had two hits each.
Yant doubled to right-center with one out in the top of the ninth then scored the decisive run when Jeff Carpenter’s two-out grounder to second baseman Jacob Boucher, rolled up his arm and sailed into shallow right.
Minton’s strikeout victims in the bottom of the inning included Scott Coulter, who had been on base five times in the game prior to that, with four hits and a walk.
“It was important for these guys to get into a game and enjoy themselves,” said head coach Terry Harper, who got his team to show more fire than they have in awhile when he was ejected from the game for arguing about a pick-off play in the pressure-packed bottom of the seventh. “And I think the last four or five innings they had a heck of a time. And the win was definitely what we needed.
“We did little things right,” he added. “We were bunting people over, we were stealing and running the bases — doing the things we normally do, making plays.”
Graddy’s high arching two-run blast deep to left in the first gave Bryant its initial lead. Tellingly, Carpenter had reached on an error in advance of the shot.
Carpenter, who started on the mound for Bryant, ran into some trouble in the second, issuing a lead-off walk to Brian McClain (who walked five times). Dennis Jones doubled then Sean Pratt got the first run home with a sacrifice fly. Coulter singled then Carpenter balked the tying run home. Boucher singled then Jason Deere put Conway on top with a sacrifice fly.
“We had three guys that hadn’t pitched in a while for us,” Harper noted. “They had moments that they looked good and, you know, moments they struggled. But the defense picked them up or the bats picked them up and they battled.”
Bryant regained the edge in the top of the third. Graddy singled, courtesy runner Zack Cardinal stole second and took third on an errant throw from Conway catcher John Davis. Chambers walked then Littleton singled in a run. A successful double steal made it 4-3.
In the fourth, Yant beat out an infield hit, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out error but Conway tied it at 5 in the bottom of the inning against Bryant’s second hurler B.J. Wood.
In the fifth, the Hornets proved industrious, the Wampus Cats generous. Graddy walked then Chambers tapped back to Conway reliever Pat Stacks. A wild throw to second prevented a putout. Littleton singled in a run to snap the tie.
Then the mayhem began. Clay Jones’ sacrifice bunt was botched as was A.J. Nixon’s and two more runs scored. Andrew Norman, trying to bunt, waited out a walk then Yant bounced one back to Stacks who threw home to force out Jones. A relay to first was not in time as Nixon rounded third. McClain’s throw from first to third was errant and Nixon was able to score, making it a four-run inning.
But Conway whittled away, picking up a run in the bottom of the fifth, another in the sixth and, in the seventh a pair when the Hornets were just an out away from a win. Conway left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh as Minton fanned Dennis Jones to get out of the inning.
Graddy lined his second homer to left-center with one out in the top of the eighth. Chambers singled and eventually scored on yet another two-out Conway error to make it 12-9.
The first five Conway batters in the bottom of the inning reached base as the lead was whittled to 12-11. Peyton Hills flew out to shallow left with the bases full then Kyle Hillis hit a grounder to short that was just too slowly hit for the Hornets to get a game-ending doubleplay turned. Hillis beat the throw to first from second baseman Jackson Moseley and the tying run scored.
McClain walked again to load the bases but Dennis Jones grounded to third to end the inning with three stranded again.
