File photo by Rick Nation
LITTLE ROCK — With two down in the top of the seventh inning, it was déjà vu for the Bryant Hornets on Saturday at UALR’s Gary Hogan Field against another brand of Panthers.
Just like on Friday night in the Big Red Classic, the Hornets were down two with the top of the batting order coming up.
On Friday, it was the Benton Panthers. On Saturday, it was Greenbrier as part of the Southwest Sporting Goods Classic.
On Friday, the Hornets rallied with four runs to win. On Saturday, even though the first two batters got aboard, the clutch hit never came and, with lefty Isaac Hulse getting the save, Greenbrier held on for a 4-2 win, pinning the first loss of the season on the Hornets, who are now 8-1 going into their 6A-Central Conference opener at Fort Smith Northside on Monday.
“I can promise you we don’t go into practice every day teaching that situation and just hoping for it,” said Hornets head coach Travis Queck. “We probably shouldn’t even have been in that situation. If we had played a cleaner game all the way through it, threw the ball well and had better approaches at the plate, we would’ve been way better off.
“As a coach, you’ve got to read your players,” he added. “And I’ve been guilty in the past of being too hard. It’s just finding that happy medium. I’m hard in practice because I want the game to be easy. I kind of let the upperclassmen and the kids on the team kind of get ready. To this point, they’ve gotten it done. But to say that I’m surprised by the outcome — I’ve seen that; I’ve seen it coming. I just didn’t know when it was going to happen.
“I am proud of our character and the fact that we don’t quit,” the coach concluded. “We fight. But it’s more about the preparation, being prepared for these moments instead of just reacting to the moments.”
Bryant got both its runs in the first inning as they knocked Greenbrier starter Keaton Whitley out after four batters. Ryan Riggs had led off with a single up the middle and Noah Davis slapped an opposite field single that allowed Riggs to race to third.
Whitley unleashed a wild pitch to allow Riggs to score. With Davis at third, Austin Ledbetter grounded to the right side for an RBI.
When Connor Martin singled up the middle, Whitley gave way to Jeremy Cooper whose first pitch was rocketed into right by J.T. Parker.
But Cooper retired the next two, keeping it 2-0.
Will Hathcote got the start for Bryant. The big right-hander struggled to get ahead of hitters. Greenbrier lead-off man Garrett Fitts singled up the middle on a 2-0 pitch. Thatcher Strack walked on a 3-1 count.
Hathcote then throw a double-play ball that Jaxson Anderson hit to Ledbetter at short. Though Fitts moved to third, with two out, Hathcote and the Hornets were just about off the hook.
A first-pitch strike to Jordan Huskey was encouraging but on the second pitch, Huskey drilled one to right.
Garrett Wilson slipped to the ground trying to break back for the ball and by the time he got to it after that, Huskey had an RBI triple to make it 2-1.
Hathcote kept it to that, however, striking out Cooper to strand Huskey at third.
“A guy slips in right field and the next thing you know a run scores and it just sets the tone for the rest of the day,” Queck said. “It was wet grass. He just slipped. That’s a tough play.”
Cooper pitched around a one-out hit batsman as Wilson reached and stole second.
In the home second, Kade Newton hit a 1-2 pitch for a double to right-center. Paxton Flagg drew a walk and Jack Runzick sacrificed the runners to second and third. The Hornets traded a run for an out when J.D. Zachary bounced out to Ledbetter. Flagg was stranded at second when Hathcote struck out Fitts.
Cooper walked the first two batters in the top of the third and gave way to Nate Barrentine. A doubleplay and a grounder to third later, Greenbrier was back at the plate.
Strack led off the bottom of the third with a walk and Queck called in lefty Aidan Adams to relieve. He got Anderson down 1-2 before he hit a fly down the left field line that fell in for an RBI double to make it 3-2.
Adams retired the next three to force the Panthers to strand a runner at third.
But the Hornets couldn’t get anything going at the plate. Lawson Speer stroked a one-out single to left in the top of the fourth. He stole second but was left there.
After Adams pitched around a lead-off single to Flagg, Adams worked around an infield hit by Ledbetter in the top of the fifth.
The Panthers plated an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. Strack beat out an infield hit that Ledbetter stopped with a diving effort in the hole. But he tried to make a throw to first from his knees and Parker, at first, couldn’t get to it.
With Strack at second, Anderson walked.
The Hornets had a chance to get out of the inning when, with Huskey at the plate trying to bunt on the first pitch, Riggs, the Hornets’ catcher, caught Strack wandering too far off second. He threw down as Strack froze momentarily then took off for third. Ledbetter took the throw at second, turned and fired to third where Strack was ruled safe as he slid around the tag of Bryant third sacker Turner Seelinger.
Moments later, Huskey delivered a sacrifice fly on a liner to right-center that Speer saved from being an extra-base hit with a diving catch.
Adams fanned pinch-hitter Caleb Aich then got Newton to fly to center to keep it 4-2.
Bryant threatened in the top of the sixth as Tanner Collins became the fourth Greenbrier pitcher. With one out, Blaine Sears was hit by a pitch. Speer walked then when Wilson fanned on a pitch in the dirt, they tried to advance. Sears beat the throw to third but, on the artificial surface, he slid past the bag and Runzick lunged back at it with the ball, and he was called out to end the inning.
Logan White relieved in the bottom of the sixth and set down the Panthers despite a lead-off walk to Flagg and an error on a grounder hit by pinch-hitter Reid Nixon.
