In a game fitting a first-place showdown, the Bryant Horents and Conway Wampus Cats kept trading licks at Bryant High School Field on Friday. Before, finally, with the tying run at second, senior lefty Aiden Adams put an end to a 9-8 victory for the Hornets who improved to 11-1 on the season, 3-0 in 6A-Central Conference play.
Conway fell to 10-3 and 2-1.
The Hornets snapped a 6-6 tie with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Conway rallied for two in the top of the seventh before Adams, the fourth Bryant pitcher, got the final out on a foul pop that catcher Ryan Riggs snow-coned near the Conway dugout.
Adams had relieved in the fourth with the bases loaded. Though he started by issuing an RBI walk and, with two down and two strikes, surrendered a two-run single, he settled down. Conway did not score in the fifth or sixth and, even when they scored those two in the seventh, Adams was a strike away from ending it, when an infield hit and an errant throw, produced Conway’s runs.
Bryant head coach Travis Queck said he had a “come to Jesus meeting,” with his pitchers.
“Some pitcher has got to step up,” he related. “All right? I wouldn’t keep putting you out there if I didn’t confidence in you. So, if I have confidence in you, I’m waiting on you to have confidence in yourself. And I can’t wait much longer. But I’m going to keep giving you the opportunity and you’ve got to come through.
“I’ll tell you what, that young man (Adams) came in, a week and a half out of basketball, and competed and did a great job to give us a chance and ultimately get the win,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud. He accepted the challenge for sure.”
Bryant’s tiebreaking sixth began with Blaine Sears being hit by a pitch. In the nine-hole, Sears was on base three times in the game, stole two bases and scored three runs.
When a wild pitch from Cameron Leach, the third of four Conway pitchers, couldn’t be found by catcher Andrew Snyder, Sears hustled all the way from first to third. With the infield in, Riggs walked, and Noah Davis lashed a single just inside the bag at first to put the Hornets back on top.
With Riggs at third and the infield in, Davis stole second without a play. A wild pitch allowed Riggs to score as Austin Ledbetter was drawing a walk. With the infield still in and Davis at third, Ledbetter walked into second.
Leach gave way to lefty Grant Fairchild who hit Conner Martin with his second pitch, loading the bases. J.T. Parker hit a tapper toward first that Hugh Hill charged, throwing home for a force.
The bases remained full, and a third run scored when Turner Seelinger drew an RBI walk.
Davis, Ledbetter and Martin each had two hits for the Hornets. Leach, Logan French and Preston Prock each had two knocks for the Wampus Cats.
Bryant came through in the clutch, belting two-out run-scoring hits four times.
“We both played last night and so we didn’t know who to expect on the mound,” Queck said. “The game plan was just be aggressive with fastballs and don’t miss them. Going in, we had to figure them out. And the guys did a good job of relaying to every hitter as they walked by or as they came into the dugout, you know, what’s going on, what do we need to do. It was just a total team effort.”
Ledbetter, who has been closing games for the Hornets, started on Friday. He needed 26 pitches but got through the first around a walk to his counterpart Austin Rainey and a single by Snyder.
In the bottom of the inning, the Hornets got to Rainey with three consecutive two-out hits by Ledbetter, Martin and Parker. Both Martin and Parker’s singles came on two-strike deliveries.
Lefty Gideon Motes took over on the mound to start the second.
Said Queck of starting Ledbetter, “I kind of came up with that decision late last night and I talked to the boys as we were preparing the field. Originally, I was going with Motes and I was thinking, ‘Okay, how can we get these top guys real quick?’ I was going to go with Led as long as — if he was doing good and looked good, we were going to keep him in there. But then we were going to bring in Motes at some point.”
Motes retired the first batter he faced on one pitch. But Hill walked, Prock singled and Seth Gregg was hit by a pitch to load the bases for the top of the batting order.
Will Hathcote relieved for the Hornets and got out of the jam with minimal damage. Sam Stroth grounded into a force at second as Hill scored to tie the game 1-1. Hathcote then got Rainey to groundout to Davis at short, who was picked up on low throw to first by Motes.
In Bryant’s second, Jordan Knox walked. Sears got down a bunt, trying to sacrifice. But Rainey got to it late and threw wildly to first. With Knox at third and two out, he and Sears worked a double steal to pick up a run, making it 2-1.
Davis then came through on a 2-2 pitch for a double into the gap in left-center to chase in Sears.
Leach greeted Hathcote in the top of the third with a drive to left that, if it had been in Conway would’ve been long gone. But, at Bryant’s spacious park, the drive wound up one-hopping the wall. Leach raced to second and made a big turn toward third. When the Hornets executed an efficient relay from Martin to Davis to Motes, who hustled and followed Leach from first to cover the bag at second, Leach was tagged out trying to scramble back.
Hathcote set down the next two to retire the side.
Rainey worked around a two-out single by Turner Seelinger in the bottom of the third, so the game went to the fourth with the Hornets up 3-1.
Consecutive singles by Kyle Spencer and Hill started what turned into a five-run outburst for Conway. Prock doubled in a run and, after Gregg walked, Stroth singled in two.
Queck brought in Adams. His walk to Rainey made it a 4-3 Conway lead. But, with the bases loaded, Adams retired Leach on strikes and got Snyder on a foul pop outside of first. The count went to 3-2 on French before he singled up the middle to make it 6-3.
Adams ended the uprising with another strikeout. He would finish with seven strikeouts over the final four innings of the game.
The Hornets answered Conway in the bottom of the fourth against reliever Collin Cunningham. Knox was hit by a pitch and stole his second and third bases of the game to get to third. Sears walked then Riggs squeezed in Knox to make it a two-run game.
With two away, Ledbetter came through with an RBI double and Martin singled to tie the game.
Adams struck out two in a 1-2-3 fifth but Leach set down the Hornets in order as well.
In the sixth, Adams pitched around a two-out single to Leach.
That set up Bryant’s decisive rally.
The Hornets will compete in a spring break tournament, co-sponsored with Pulaski Robinson, starting Thursday with three games in the tourney at Bryant. It’ll start at 10 a.m., with the Hornets taking on Arkadelphia.
