Hornets rally late to avoid Russellville’s upset bid, ascend to first place again
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting 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).
By Rob Patrick
Brennan Bullock will take one for the team.
He’s proved it nine times this season — by far the most of anyone on the team — including twice as part of crucial rallies for the Bryant Hornets on Tuesday, April 14.
The Hornets had to come from behind to beat the Russellville Cyclones, 4-3, a win that, coupled with Cabot’s 2-0 victory over North Little Rock thrust them into first place in the 7A-Central Conference with an 8-3 mark. North Little Rock remains even in the loss column at 6-3. Conway, which out-lasted Little Rock Central 16-11 on Tuesday, and Little Rock Catholic, which absorbed a 5-2 loss to Van Buren, are a game back at 6-4. Central (5-6), Cabot (4-5), Van Buren (4-5) and Russellville (1-10) complete the standings.
Yes, Russellville is last. But the Cyclones have contributed to a recent trend in the conference in which second division teams have been upending first division teams to the point that, as you can see, there’s a thin line between the two. Russellville recently stunned Little Rock Central in extra innings, 11-10. The wins by Cabot and Van Buren on Tuesday continued that trend while the Hornets avoided being one of the victims.
They face a showdown with Conway on the road on Thursday. The Wampus Cats were rolling with five straight wins including one against North Little Rock before Central surprised them 5-4 on Saturday, April 11.[more]
It’s officially a mad scramble with about two weeks left in the regular season. Six teams advance to State which means a very good team will be left out along with Russellville, a vastly improving squad.
The Cyclones started three freshmen, two sophomores, a junior and three seniors Tuesday as they have much of the season. It only figured they’d get better as the season went along.
“(Head coach) Matt Long and (former head coach now assistant) Denny McCrotty have done a great job with them,” acknowledged Bryant head coach Kirk Bock. “They’ve come a long way. And they’re basically using this season like a spring training.”
After defeating the Cylcones 15-0 at their place back on March 13, you can understand that the Hornets might be looking past them and it nearly cost them.
“I admit I was a little irate,” Bock stated. “This is a good team when they want to be. There are times when they just don’t seem to want to be. I told Coach Long, his team deserved to win. They out-played us. But we did scrap and battle.”
The Hornets trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the sixth. Bullock opened the inning and reached first when he was hit by a pitch from Russellville reliever Heath Moore, who had just come into the game. Lefty starter Paul Schaffner had kept the Hornets off balance much of the game with his change of speeds but had a stressful inning in the fifth and gave way to Moore in the sixth.
The inning continued with Tyler Brown getting down his second sacrifice bunt. Justin Blankenship followed with a high fly to left that Russellville’s Chase Wetzel circled to, then dropped. Bullock reached third and Blankenship second with Caleb Garrett stepping to the plate.
Early in the count, Moore unleashed a wild pitch. Bullock headed for home but the ball ricocheted perfectly off the concrete base of the backstop, right to catcher Mike Cowles who tossed to Moore in time to tag Bullock for the second out of the inning.
Garrett, who had blooped a single to right to drive in a second-inning run that had given the Hornets a short-lived 2-1 lead, fouled off a 2-2 pitch before rolling one toward third. As Blankenship raced home, Garrett beat the throw to first for an infield hit. And when the throw was wild, he took second.
Garrett Bock hustled for an infield hit to follow but Moore got off the hook for the time being by striking out Hunter Mayall, who had singled twice prior to that.
Junior right-hander Ben Wells, who relieved starter Caleb Milam in the sixth striking out two to strand runners at first and second, surrendered a lead-off double to Cowles in the top of the seventh. Madison Beaird grounded to the right side to get courtesy runner Lane Reves to third but Wells made a nice stab on a hard comebacker hit by Wetzel then got Birginske, an impressive freshman, to bounce to Mayall at third to keep it tied 3-3.
“I knew as soon as I saw how Wells was throwing that, if we could score, we’d win,” Bock related. “He looked good.”
Moore retired the first two batters of the bottom of the inning and it looked like extra innings might be in the offing but Brady Butler walked on four pitches and Jonathan Wade pinch-ran. On the next pitch, Bullock took another one for the team, right off his helmet.
With Brown up, a wild pitch allowed the runners to move up to second and third. The count went to 3-2. On the next pitch, Brown drew a walk and the pitch skipped in the dirt and past Cowles allowing Wade to score the game-winning run.
Sophomore right-hander Caleb Milam had started the game on the mound for the Hornets and kept the damage to a minimum as Russellville made noise in the first three innings. He retired the side in order in the fourth and worked around a lead-off walk in the fifth before running into more trouble in the sixth.
The Cyclones had taken the lead initially when Beaird looped a double to center that Garrett misjudged at first. A wild pitch allowed Beaird to reach third and Wetzel brought him home with a sacrifice fly.
Birginske singled but was stranded as Milam retired Jake Holloway and Schaffner.
In the bottom of the inning, Bock, playing with a sore hip, drew a one-out walk. Mayall singled and Kaleb Jobe drew a free pass to load the bases for Tyler Sawyer. His sacrifice fly tied it but the Hornets stranded the first two of the 11 they left on in the game.
The Hornets erased a one-out error with a nifty 6-4-3 twin-killing in the top of the second. They took the lead in the home half. Brown singled with one down, advanced to second when Blankenship’s liner was knocked down by first baseman Brandon Turner who then stepped on the bag to retire the batter. With two out and a 1-2 count, Garrett fouled off a pitch then hit his RBI blooper to right to make it 2-1.
Russellville tied it back up in the top of the third. Cowles doubled, Beaird walked and, with two down, Birginske delivered an RBI single.
With one out and runners at the corners, Milam executed the fake-to-third, throw-to-first pickoff move and caught Birginske for the second out. He then induced a grounder to second by Holloway to end the inning.
Schaffner, who made the Hornets change their approach at the plate (i.e., not to swing at curves until there were two strikes), kept getting ahead in the count with his breaker, sometimes a soft floater and others with a bit more velocity. He worked around a one-out single to Jobe in the third. (With that hit, Jobe extended his hitting streak to nine games.) In the fourth, Bullock singled and stole second, got sacrificed to third with one out but was left on.
The Hornets missed a chance to take the lead in the fifth when Mayall singled and Jobe walked in front of a lined single to right by Sawyer. Mayall was looking to score but had to hold when the ball got back in from the outfield in short order. A quick throw to third got him for the second out of the inning. Schaffner got off the hook by getting Butler to ground out to second.
Milam retired the first batter of the sixth inning but then Holloway doubled to deep center and Schaffner lined an RBI single to right to give his team a 3-2 lead. And when Turner followed with a single, Milam gave way to Wells who struck out Matt Lutz and Frank Chiolino to keep it a one-run contest.
BRYANT 4, RUSSELLVILLE 3
Cyclones Hornets
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Beaird, cf 3 1 1 0 Garrett, cf 4 0 2 2
Wetzel, lf 3 0 0 1 Bock, dh 3 1 1 0
Birginske, 3b 4 0 2 1 Mayall, 3b 4 0 2 0
Holloway, ss 3 1 1 0 Jobe, c 2 0 1 0
Schaffner, p-1b3 0 1 1 Wade, cr 0 0 0 0
Ward, cr 0 0 0 0 Sawyer, ss 3 0 1 0
Turner, 1b 3 0 1 0 Butler, 1b 3 0 0 0
Moore, p 0 0 0 0 Wade, pr 0 1 0 0
Lutz, rf 3 0 0 0 Bullock, lf 2 0 1 0
Chiolino, 2b 2 0 0 0 Brown, 2b 1 1 1 0
Cowles, c 2 0 2 0 Blankenship, rf 3 1 0 0
Reves, cr 0 1 0 0 Milam, p 0 0 0 0
Wells, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 26 3 8 3 Totals 25 4 9 3
Russellville 101 001 0 — 3
BRYANT 110 001 1 — 4
Two out when winning run scored.
E—Brown, Wetzel, Birginske. DP—Bryant 1. LOB—Russellville 6, Bryant 11. 2B—Beaird, Cowles 2, Holloway. SB—Garrett, Beaird, Bullock. SF—Sawyer, Wetzel. S—Brown 2, Cowles.
ip r er h bb so
Russellville
Schaffner 5 2 2 7 3 2
Moore (L) 1.2 1 0 2 2 2
Bryant
Milam 5.1 3 3 7 2 4
Wells (W, 3-2) 1.2 0 0 1 0 2
HBP—Bullock 2 (by Moore). WP—Milam 3, Schaffner, Moore 2.
