Bryant escapes Sheridan’s upset bid
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Photo by Rick Nation
Despite issuing a season-high seven walks, employing more pitchers in a game than any other except their benefit to start the season, and giving up more than four runs in a game for just the second time all year, the Bryant Hornets found a way to extract an 11-5 win over the Sheridan Yellowjackets in a South Conference game on Thursday night.
Trey Breeding threw out two would-be base-stealers against Sheridan. (Photo by Rick Nation)
Clutch relief pitching by Harrison Dale and Jason Hastings along with a rare inside-the-park grand slam by Trevor Ezell that broke open a two-run game keyed the victory, which improved the Hornets to 21-2 overall and 9-1 in league play going into Friday’s trip to Texarkana.
Eight of Bryant’s nine starters had hits with Drew Tipton contributing a pair. Ezell drove in five runs and Korey Thompson was on base three times, scoring on each occasion.
The Hornets were clinging to a 7-5 lead in the top of the fifth. Sheridan had the bases loaded with two outs when Dale entered as the third pitcher of the inning and fourth of the game for Bryant. He got Tyler McKinzie to ground into a force play to end the threat.
In the bottom of the inning, walked by McKinzie to Brandan Warner and Dalton Holt gave the Hornets a chance to pad the tenuous advantage. Thompson got a bunt down that McKinzie fielded. He looked to third but Warner was already too close for a play and by the time McKinzie whirled around to look towards first, Thompson was there.
With the bases loaded, Ezell came up, took a pitch then laced the next delivery to deep right. Sheridan right-fielder David Vilches didn’t get a good jump on the ball and came up just shy of getting to it. And, when it rolled all the way to the fence, the speedy Ezell circled the bags, just beating the relay to the plate.
Hastings took over on the mound in the top of the sixth and retired all six batters he faced to earn a two-inning save.
Jason Hastings picked up a save with two perfect innings of relief against Sheridan. (Photo by Rick Nation)
Sheridan had five hits to go with the seven walks but they wound up stranding only those three runners in the fifth due to a doubleplay and the fact that catcher Trey Breeding gunned down a pair of Jackets’ base-runners trying to steal.
“Offensively, I thought we did a good job,” stated Hornets coach Kirk Bock. “We had a couple of dead innings. Defensively, I thought we did a poor job. We didn’t do some rundowns correctly. We weren’t throwing strikes. We gave up seven free bags and all of them were walks. Trey bailed us out a couple of times by throwing some guys out. But we had two picks (pick-off plays) in there that we just screwed up on. That’s two free outs. And I wouldn’t be as upset if we didn’t work on that every day.
“Those type of things, we’ve got to do better in,” he asserted. “For us to win and win big, we’re going to do it with pitching and defense. Offense for everybody on the planet is very sporadic. It can come and go. But defense and pitching, those are things that don’t have to come and go. They can be stable.
“We just didn’t do a very good job tonight and it was really about the first time all year that we didn’t,” the coach concluded.
Neither team scored in the first. Bryant starter Zach Jackson, who had issued just 12 walks in 38 2/3 innings over eight starts all season, surrendered the first of four passes he suffered in the contest but Breeding threw out the runner when he tried to steal second.
Drew Tipton hauls in a pop in shallow left field. (Photo by Rick Nation)
In the top of the second inning, Jackson walked Evan Thompson. But courtesy runner Cory Walker was hit by McKinzie’s grounder to the right side that appeared to be on its way to right field. McKinzie got credited with a hit but Walker was out. The next batter, Nick Whitley hit a grounder to Warner at third. He whipped a throw to second that drew Thompson off the bag. But the second sacker snagged the throw, tagged McKinzie and fired to first.
Initially, Whitley was called safe but Bock appealed the play, noticing that the field umpire had been focused on the tag play at second. Upon Bock’s request, the field umpire consulted with the homeplate umpire on the call at first. After a few minutes of discussion, Whitley was ruled out to end the inning. Sheridan head coach Mike Moore argued but to no avail.
There would be more controversy in the bottom of the second. Yellowjackets starter Tyler Raney walked Hastings to open the inning but picked him off first. Evan Lee followed with a single up the middle and Warner looped a base hit to right. Holt was robbed of a hit by Sheridan third baseman Lathan Wylie, who got a force on Lee at third for the second out.
Thompson worked a walk to extend the inning and load the bases. A walk to Ezell, who fouled on a pair of 3-2 deliveries, forced in the game’s first run. Tipton followed with a single to center that chased home Holt.
Raney, who backed up the catcher at homeplate as the throw came in holding Thompson at third, apparently made a comment to the umpire on the way back to the mound and he was tossed from the game. Moore argued again and soon followed.
McKinzie was brought on to pitch and issued an RBI walk to Chase Tucker to make it 3-0. Breeding supplied the big hit of the inning, lashing a single to left that plated Ezell and Tipton. And when it was misplayed in the outfield, Tucker got to the plate as well before Breeding was caught in a rundown and tagged out to end the frame.
But the Hornets suddenly led 6-0.
Jackson worked a 1-2-3 third but, in the fourth, his first nine pitches were out of the strike zone as Tadd Daggett and Zach Glidden drew walks. He got a pair of strikes on Strong but, on a 1-2 pitch, the Sheridan batter stroked an RBI double to left-center.
Bryant traded a run for an out as Evan Thompson bounced out to short, plating Glidden. Jackson then struck out McKinzie to get an out away from escaping further damage. But, on a 1-2 pitch, Whitley singled up the middle to make it 6-3.
Lee came on in relief and, when Whitley tried to steal, Breeding threw him out to bring the frame to a conclusion.
The Hornets got one of those runs back in the home fourth on singles by Korey Thompson, Tipton and Tucker.
A walk to Vilches opened the top of the fifth. Lee struck out Wylie but issued another free pass to Brady Bibb. Daggett fouled off a trio of 3-2 pitches then plugged the gap for an RBI double.
Right-hander Devin Dupree relieved for the Hornets and Glidden greeted him with a bunt as the safety squeeze was on. Dupree bounced off the mound, got to the ball and flipped to Breeding just in time to apply the tag on Bibb for the second out.
But Strong stroked an RBI single to center to make it 7-5. A walk to Evan Thompson loaded the bases and put the potential go-ahead run on base.
That’s when Dale was called upon to get the last out and it took him three pitches to do just that, setting the stage for Ezell’s round-trip in the home half.
The only game in which the Hornets had given up more than four runs was in an 8-5 loss to Waxahachie, Texas, in a tournament in Waco on March 7.
HORNETS 11, YELLOWJACKETS 5
Sheridan ab r h bi Bryant ab r h bi
Daggett, ss 3 2 1 1 Ezell, ss 3 2 1 5
Raney, p 1 0 0 0 Tipton, lf 4 1 2 1
Glidden, 1b 1 1 0 0 Tucker, cf 2 1 1 2
Rainwater, ph 1 0 0 0 Breeding, c 3 0 1 2
Strong, cf 2 1 2 2 Hastings, rf-p3 0 1 0
E.Thompson, c 1 0 0 1 Lee, dh-p 2 0 1 0
Walker, cr 0 0 0 0 Dupree, p 0 0 0 0
McKinzie, 1b-p 3 0 1 0 Dale, p 0 0 0 0
Whitley, dh 3 0 1 1 Patterson, ph 1 0 0 0
Vilches, rf 2 1 0 0 Allen, rf 0 0 0 0
Wylie, 3b 2 0 0 0 Warner, 3b 3 2 1 0
Reid, ph 1 0 0 0 Holt, 1b 2 2 0 0
Bibb, lf 2 0 0 0 K.Thompson,2b 1 3 1 0
Lisenbey, 2b 0 0 0 0 Jackson, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 22 5 5 5 Totals 21 11 9 10
Sheridan 000 320 0 — 5
Bryant 060 140 x — 11
E—Bibb. LOB—Sheridan 3, Bryant 5. DP—Bryant 1. 2B—Hastings, Strong, Daggett. HR—Ezell. S—K.Thompson.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Sheridan
Raney (L) 1.2 5 5 3 5 1
McKinzie 3.1 6 5 6 4 1
Bryant
Jackson 3.2 3 3 3 4 2
Lee 0.2 2 2 1 2 1
Dupree 0.1 0 0 1 1 0
Dale (W) 0.1 0 0 0 0 0
Hastings (S) 2 0 0 0 0 1
WP—Jackson, Raney.
