Photos courtesy of Heather Thomason
EDITOR’S NOTE: All Bryant area youth teams are welcome to submit scorebooks or GameChanger links with rosters to rob@bryantdaily.com to post game reports.
After a tough 1-0 loss in their opening game, the Bryant Future Hornets 8A baseball team rallied to win the championship of the third leg of the Wally Hall Classic the weekend of May 2-3.
The loss came on Saturday to the Benton Panthers and, later that day, the Future Hornets were bounced by the Arkansas Travelers, 12-3, in pool play. They got back at the Panthers with a 10-1 victory on Sunday and advanced to the championship game against the Outlaws 8-and-under team. With a 7-0 win, the Future Hornets claimed the tourney championship.
The team, coached by Jeff Jackson, Brad Benton, Darren Hurt and Jerry East includes J.T. Allen, Brayden Beeken, Gavyn Benson, Carter Brown, Aaron Cook, Avery Heidelberg, Drake Holland, Landon Jackson, E.J. “Chop” Keith, Braxton Speer, Aiden Stout and Hudson Thomason.
The seven-player core of the team has been a part of winning their age division of the tournament three years in a row.
Future Hornets 7, Outlaws 0
Benson and Stout combined on a three-hit shutout in the championship win. Benson also led the offense with two hits. Beenken drove in two runs.
A five-run second put Bryant in the driver’s seat. Speer instigated the uprising with a single. A base hit by Benson and a walk to Heidelberg loaded the bases. Brown and Stout cracked RBI singles then Jackson and Beenken were hit by pitches, each forcing in a run. Stout scored the fifth run of the inning when Cook grounded into a force at third.
The Outlaws’ first base-runner came on a walk with one out in the home second but a liner to Brown at short turned into a doubleplay to end the inning.
Benson worked around a lead-off walk in the third and the Hornets tacked on a run in the top of the fourth. Stout reached on a one-out error, advanced on a wild pitch and a grounder to the right side by Jackson. Beenken singled and it was 6-0.
The Outlaws managed their first hit, a one-out double, in the bottom of the fourth but were unable to bring him around.
Keith singled with two out in the top of the fifth, took second and third on wild pitches then scored on an error.
Stout closed out the win by striking out two and getting the final out on a tap back to the mound.
Future Hornets 10, Panthers 1
Thomason held Benton to just one hit over the first three innings of the run-rule victory. The Panthers managed an unearned run in the fourth before Brown closed out the win, without giving up a hit.
At the plate, Speer went 2 for 3 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Thomason pitched in with a hit and three runs batted in. He walked twice and scored twice.
Bryant took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Thomason walked, moved to second on Allen’s groundout, third on a passed ball and scored on Speer’s two-out single.
Speer stole second and Benson reached on an error. Heidelberg was struck by a pitch to load the bases and Brown got the run home when his grounder to short was booted.
Thomason worked around a walk and an error in the bottom of the first. In the second, the Future Hornets broke the game open with six runs. Jackson revved up the offense with a lead-off double. After he took third on a wild pitch, Beenken drew a walk and Cook reached on an error to fill the sacks. Thomason walked to firce in a run then Allen’s grounder was kicked as Beenken scored. With two down, Speer came through with a two-run single to center.
Allen came home when Benson reached on an error then Heidelberg capped off the inning with an RBI single.
Benton managed its lone hit in the bottom of the second but Thomason fanned the next two batters to send it to the third.
The lead ballooned to 10-0 when Beenken singled, Holland walked and both scored on Thomason’s hit.
Benton’s runs came on a pair of walks and an error.
Travelers 12, Future Hornets 3
The Hornets were plagued by nine walks and seven errors but were within 4-2 through three innings as the Travelers were held to just three hits. An nightmare eight-run top of the fourth made it a lopsided win for the Travelers.
Brown had two of Bryant’s two hits. Benson and Heidelberg accounted for the other two hits. Keith, Heidelberg and Beenken drove in runs.
The Travelers scored three times in the top of the first to gain the upper hand. It was 4-0 before Bryant got on the board in the bottom of the second. Brown singled, Heidelberg and Stout walked and, with one out, Beenken grounded into a force at third allowing Benson to score.
In the home third, Thomason and Allen each walked then advanced on a passed ball. Thomason scored on Keith’s groundout to make it 4-2.
Even after the Travelers’ eight-run fourth, the Future Hornets didn’t go away quietly. Singles by Benson and Brown set up and RBI single by Heidelberg to start the home fourth but that was all they could get.
Panthers 1, Future Hornets 0
The game was scoreless through five innings as a trio of Benton pitchers dueled with Thomason, Stout and Keith. The Panthers’ group wound up allowing just one hit while the Future Hornets’ trio took a no-hitter into the bottom of the sixth.
But Benton put together its only two hits in that home sixth and, with the help of a walk and an RBI groundout, pushed across the game-winning run.
Thomason worked two innings, walked two and fanned three. Stout walked one and fanned four in his two frames then Keith struck out the side in the fifth.
Bryant’s lone hit was a lead-off single in the third by Jackson. The Future Hornets’ best chances to score were in the first and the fifth. In the first, Thomason reached on an error but was forced at second on a grounder by Allen. Keith grounded into a force but then Speer was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second. But both were stranded.
In the fifth, Benson was struck by a delivery and Brown walked. A wild pitch moved them to second and third with one out but they were left on as well.
