Hornets nail down conference championship
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
LITTLE ROCK — There’s no telling how far the ball might’ve gone had Justin Wells hit it with a sweet spot of his bat. As it was, even though his bat split right down the length of the barrel, his flyball carried to deep center. And, though it was caught by Little Rock Central’s Blake Bumgardner, it was enough to allow Travis Queck to tag up at third and scurry home with a run that snapped a 1-1 deadlock.
Ace lefty Travis Wood and the Bryant Hornets’ defense made that stand up, too, for a 2-1 win that secured the championship of the AAAAA-Central Conference.
It was a game befitting a title tilt, pitting the No. 1-ranked Hornets against the eighth-ranked Tigers who came into the contest trailing Bryant by one game in the league standings.
Bryant finishes the regular season with an 11-1 conference mark, 28-2 overall. The Hornets will be the league’s top seed at the Class AAAAA State Tournament at Benton. They were set to open play on Saturday, May 1, at 5 p.m., against Blytheville, the No. 4 seed fro the AAAAA-East, at Benton High School.
Central, which still needed a win over North Little Rock on Wednesday, April 28, to secure the league’s second seed to the State Tournament, dropped to 24-6 overall, 8-3 in the conference.
The game was a duel between Wood, who improved to 10-0 on the season with his route-going effort, and Central right-hander Richard Weatherford. Wood allowed four hits, walked five and hit one while striking out nine. Weatherford allowed just three hits, walked four, hit one and fanned six.
The difference came down to defense efficiency and offensive execution.
Bryant played errorless defense. Central committed one error and it cost them.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first when Weatherford walked with one out. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored when Bumgardner slapped a single to right.
Bryant tied it in the second when Bryan Griffith led off with a double down the left-field line. Zack Young followed with a slow roller to short that Central’s Justin Mack booted as Griffith rushed to third.
An out later, Dustin Tinkler grounded to second. Central got the force at second but Tinkler hustled through the bag at first and avoided the inning-ending doubleplay as Griffith scored.
Both teams threatened in the third. Central had runners at first and second with no one out and the top of the lineup coming up. But Wells speared a liner to short for the first out then scooped up a grounder by Weatherford and flipped to second sacker Korey Hunter to start an inning-ending doubleplay.
The Hornets loaded the bases with one out on walks to Todd Bryan and Wells around a single by Travis Wood (which extended his current hitting streak to nine games). But the Tigers got a force at the plate on a sharp grounder to third by Griffith and got out of the inning when Young skied to center.
The decisive run scored in the fifth. Dustin Easterly opened the inning with an infield hit. Bryan drew another walk then Wood sacrificed, moving the runners to second and third for Wells, who split his bat as he lifted a sacrifice fly to center.
In the bottom of the inning, Central made a bid to answer. With two out, Cody Ruffin walked and Scott Hale singled to left. But with Weatherford at the plate, Wells snuck in behind Ruffin at second, acted as if he was heading back to his position, then jumped back to the bag. Wood whirled and fired to him, picking off Ruffin to end the threat.
In the sixth, Wood issued a pair of one-out walks but struck out Phillip Wood and got Cory Lambert to fly to left to end the inning.
In the seventh, Brandon Dinwiddie singled with one out but was stranded when Gene Clark struck out and Hale had his sharp bouncer to third flagged down by Young who threw to first to end the game.
