Lady Hornets end regular season with back-to-back wins
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
The Bryant Lady Hornets softball team had beaten all the teams they needed to in order to gain a spot in the Class AAAAA State Tournament as they entered the final week of the regular season. All they needed was one win in their last two games and one of those was against a Little Rock McClellan team they had thumped 18-0 in an earlier meeting.
But they hadn’t been able to knock off one of the league’s top three teams. Though they’d been defeated decisively by first-place North Little Rock twice, they had played second-place Conway tough both times. Against third-place Mount St. Mary’s, they weren’t in the best emotional state that night.
So it was sweet when the Lady Hornets hosted Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday, April 27, and rallied for three runs in the bottom of the sixth to claim a 3-1 win over the Belles.
“I knew we could do it,” declared Lady Hornets head coach Lisa Spears. “It’s good timing coming into the State Tournament and I hope it’s an open door for us. This was awesome. I don’t think it means anything as far as our seeding but we’ve been due a break and, hopefully, we’ve got a couple more coming to us at State.”
Buoyed by the victory, the Lady Hornets dismissed McClellan on Thursday, April 29, 11-1 in five innings to roll into State Tournament play. They were set to play the rival Benton Lady Panthers in the opening round at Sherwood on Monday, May 3.
The wins improved the Lady Hornets to 12-11 overall, 8-6 in conference play. But the confidence gained by the win over Mount St. Mary’s was key for Spears.
“We’re pretty mental and sometimes we don’t have enough confidence in ourselves,” she noted. “It takes somebody getting up there and breaking through with a big hit then others fall in line.”
And that’s just what happened. The breakthrough hit came from junior shortstop Amie Hubbard.
Bryant trailed 1-0 going into the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Keisha Stickley reached base on an error. Kara Vaughn followed with a cued blooper in front of Mount St. Mary’s second baseman Kristin Faulk. A doubleplay could’ve ended the inning if the Belles had been able to turn it, but a rushed throw to second was off-line allowing the inning to continue.
Hubbard then crushed the second pitch she was offered to the fence in right. Stickley scored the tying run easily, but Mount St. Mary’s executed an efficient cut-off play and threw Vaughn out at the plate.
Hubbard, however, alertly took third on the throw and, on the next pitch, she scored when Kaci Melhorn shot a single to left to make it 2-1.
Heather Gephardt kept the merry-go-round going with a looping liner to right-center. Melhorn aggressively headed for third on the play and when the throw from the outfield got past the third baseman, she scored to make it 3-1.
Mount St. Mary’s still had a chance to rally in the top of the seventh and didn’t go quietly. Vaughn, the Bryant pitcher, got the first two outs with ease but an error extended the inning and back-to-back singles followed, loading the bases. But Vaughn struck out pinch-hitter Megan Schrader to end the game in dramatic fashion.
Bryant had been held to just one hit — a second-inning single by Allison Grappe — through five innings by the Belles’ Shannon Adams and Monica Moltz.
Mount St. Mary’s scored its lone run in the top of the fifth on a walk, a stolen base, a sacrifice and a double by Taylor Morgan. But after that, Vaughn and the Lady Hornets’ defense limited the Belles to just one hit, a lead-off single by Morgan in the fourth, until the seventh-inning rally.
Against McClellan, the Lady Hornets surrendered a run in the first but Kelly Norman shut them out without a hit the rest of the game.
Bryant tied it 1-1 in the second when Hailey King singled with two out. She stole second and drew a wild throw that allowed her to take third. After Norman walked, the Lady Hornets worked a double steal to get the run.
In the third, Bryant took the lead for good, scoring four times. Vaughn drew a one-out walk and Hubbard singled. After Melhorn walked to load the bases, Gephardt delivered a two-run single. Grappe walked then King’s second hit drove in a run and an error allowed Grappe to score, making it 5-1.
In the fourth, three McClellan errors and a trio of walks produced two more Bryant runs.
In the fifth, King walked and stole second. An out later, Kayla Pitts singled to center to make it 8-1.
The game-ending runs came in the bottom of the sixth when Vaughn walked, Hubbard beat out an infield hit and Melhorn crushed a triple. When Gephardt’s grounder to second was misplayed, Melhorn scored the game-ending run.
