Bryant goes 4-2 at tournament in Texas
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MARSHALL, Texas — The Bryant Lady Hornets put together three consecutive wins to finish 4-2 and win the consolation bracket of the annual Ark-La-Texas Elite Tournament held at three sites Feb. 21-23.
In pool play, the Lady Hornets opened with a 6-1 loss to Ouachita Christian of Monroe, La., but bounced back to outslug Elysian Fields of Marshall, 10-9. They then ran into the only team that beat them in the finals of the event last spring, Huntington, Texas. A 4-0 loss to Huntington sent them into the consolation bracket.
There they earned a trophy by topping Mena, Ark., 9-6; Lufkin, Texas, 4-1; and Elysian Fields again 12-1.
“We grew a lot as a team this weekend,” stated Lady Hornets coach Lisa Dreher. “The first game versus Elysian Fields and the game versus Mena, we got big leads and seemed to lose focus. hey both came back and ended up being very close games. e talked about not letting up when we had the lead and having the killer instinct after that. he girls seemed complacent when it seemed like we were going to win. Our pitchers had to pitch a lot of extra innings because of that. But we proved in the last two games that we were capable of finishing games. was relieved to see they had it in them.”
Kristen Dorsey and Christen Kirchner led the Lady Hornets in hitting for the tourney. Both posted .476 averages. Sarah Hart hit .429 and Lana Naumann .375. Morgan Seelinger swiped six bases along the way.
“I was encouraged to see how deep our bench was,” Dreher mentioned. “We had to go to our bench multiple times in each game and our subs were able to come in and make a positive impact. e had six girls who played more than one position. think our versatility will definitely be to our advantage, especially later on in the season.”
North Little Rock, a 7A-Central Conference rival of the Lady Hornets, wound up winning the tournament.
