Buck fans 16 in Senior Sox’ shutout victory
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting 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).
On his 105thpitch, reaching the limit for a pitcher in a game, Myers Buck struck out Braden Carmen for the second out of the seventh innings. He had to come out of the game, but Carmen had been the only Benton Everett batter that he hadn’t fanned at least once.
It was his 16thstrikeout of the game.
Boston Heil came on to strike out Eli Williams to make it 17 for the night, closing out the two-hit shutout and Bryant’s 8-0 win in the first round of the Area 3 District Tournament at Bryant High School Field on Friday night.
Saturday at noon, the Sox, defending State and MidSouth Regional champion, will play the Little Rock Post 1 Vipers to determine one of the District’s two State bids. Little Rock dismissed Searcy 14-4 earlier on Friday to advance. Benton and Searcy will play at 2:30 p.m., on Saturday with the survivor taking on the loser of the Bryant-Little Rock game at 5 to determine the other State bid.
The Senior American Legion State Tournament will be at Hendrix College in Conway starting Friday, July 27.
“That was as dominant a performance as I’ve seen in a long time, by any pitcher,” said Bryant manager Darren Hurt of Buck. “He’s been getting better every outing and he was really good today.”
Buck struck out six in a row at one point then finished with six K’s in the last seven batters. The only hits he surrendered were singles by Carmen in the second — and he promptly picked him off first — and Connor Pinkerton to lead off the seventh.
He walked three. The first led off the game allowing Austin Bull to reach base. J-Red Kelly reached on the only Bryant error of the game but then catcher Jake Wright made a perfect throw to Logan Catton at third to catch Bull trying to steal between Buck’s first two strikeouts.
The other two walks came in the fifth, which proved to be Benton’s best chance to score. Logan Black drew the first pass and, with two down, Luke Weaver walked. Buck then committed a balk to allow the runners to move to second and third. But Buck struck out Weston Buchanon to end the inning.
Scott Schmidt and Cade Drennan each had two hits for the Sox, who improved to 34-7-1. Each drove in two along with Logan Chambers, who might’ve knocked in another on what officially went down as a two-run single off the wall.
Already ahead 4-0, the Sox had the bases loaded in the bottom of the third when Chambers launched one to deep right. Williams went back on the ball as Peyton Dillon, the runner at third tagged up. The runner at second, Logan Catton, and at first, Coby Greiner played it halfway.
The ball hit the fence, but Williams got close enough to catching it that Greiner was headed back to first to tag. Catton, with a better angle on it, had taken off to score on the tail of Dillon.
Chambers came down the first-base line, thinking extra bases but he didn’t see Greiner coming back and accidentally passed him. So, Chambers was out.
Greiner, meanwhile, had reversed course, and headed for third. The relay throw wound up going to third where he was tagged out to end the inning.
There was confusion about how many runs scored but, eventually, they got it right and Bryant had a 6-0 lead headed to the fourth.
The Sox had grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first when, with one out, Wright singled up the middle, Drennan was struck by a pitch and, with two out, Schmidt came through with an RBI single to left. Moments later, Schmidt took off early for second and, when he drew a throw that was fumbled by Carmen, the Benton shortstop, Drennan scored.
In the second, Catton drew a one-out walk. Greiner bounced into a force but a walk to Chambers kept the inning going. Wright was hit by a pitch to load the bases then Drennan was drilled to force in a run, making it 3-0.
Logan Grant made a bid for a big bases-loaded knock but was robbed by Bull on his sinking liner to center.
In the third, Matthew Sandidge worked a walk. Dillon hit a grounder to third and Pinkerton tried to get a force at second only to have his throw dropped by Kelly.
Catton, sacrificing, got a bunt down and when Weaver, the catcher, threw to first, it was missed, and the bases were loaded.
Greiner singled to make it 4-0, leading to Chambers’ at-bat.
With Buck fanning six in a row over the third and fourth innings, the Sox continued to add on. In the fourth, Drennan cracked a single to right, Grant beat out an infield hit then Schmidt placed a bunt just past Buchanon, the second Benton pitcher. Drennan hustled home to make it 7-0.
Greiner led off the fifth with a walk and scored all the way from first when Drennan sliced a double inside the line at first.
“We left a lot of people on base,” noted Hurt. “We had a few innings where we could’ve really busted this thing open and we didn’t. Other than that, I thought it was really good.”
The Sox stranded 11.
