Photos by Kevin Nagle
Evan Lee (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Freshmen Jake East and Austin Kelly had run-scoring hits while the trio of Evan Lee, Alex Shurtleff and Harrison Dale combined on a one-hit shutout as the Bryant Hornets won a junior varsity game over the Pine Bluff Zebras, 11-0, in five innings Thursday night.
After Bryant scored eight runs in the first and three in the second, the latter inning ended after one out.
Lee retired all six batters he faced, five on strikes to start the game. Shurtleff faced the minimum as well but allowed a walk to start the fourth. But when Bralin Hence tried to steal second, catcher C.J. Phillips threw him out.
An error allowed the next batter, Brandon Little to reach, but second baseman Connor Tatum made a leaping grab of a liner off the bat of Cameron Robertson and whipped a throw to Blake Patterson at first for an inning-ending doubleplay.
Pine Bluff’s Blake Hence slapped a single to right for the lone hit, leading off the fifth. But Dale struck out two of the next three to finish off the game.
Dale and Dylan Hurt opened the bottom of the first with singles. C.J. Phillips walked and Justin Emmerling was hit by a pitch to force in a run. Hurt and Phillips wound up scoring on wild pitches. Patterson walked on the first of those errant deliveries and hustled to second on the play.
East shot a single up the middle to plate Emmerling then Patterson scored on a balk. A pair of wild pitches as Tatum worked a walk allowed East to score. Logan Allen walked, Dale was nicked by a pitch and Hurt was plunked to make it 7-0.
Connor Tatum (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
After a pitching change, Phillips drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right.
In the abbreviated second inning, Patterson laced a double to deep left-center and scored on Kelly’s single to left. And when the throw from the outfield was errant, Kelly wound up at second. East reached on an error then walks to Tatum and Allen brought Kelly around to score. Dale’s sacrifice fly made it 11-0.
The Hornets head to Florida for spring break. The JV team, now 4-0, is set to play its next game in-state on Tuesday, April 1 against Little Rock J.A. Fair.
