April 20 in Bryant athletic history: 2009

Hornets reactivate offense against Watson Chapel

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

BRYANT, Ark. — The Bryant Hornets made some good news and received some good news on Monday, April 20.

The good news they created was with their bats, pounding out 14 hits and scoring 13 runs to beat the Watson Chapel Wildcats, 13-5. The Hornets had scored 15 runs against Van Buren on April 9 but it’d taken five games to accumulate 15 more before Monday’s outburst. Hunter Mayall and Tyler Sawyer each had three hits and Kaleb Jobe belted a grand slam that, by the way, extended his hitting streak to 13 games. Blake Davidson picked up a win in his first varsity start then Bo Stitch and Austin Queck finished up in their first varsity moundwork of the campaign.

Now, about the good news the Hornets received. That was the fact that the Cabot Panthers knocked off the North Little Rock Charging Wildcats, 7-2, putting the Hornets back on top of the 7A-Central Conference with an 8-4 mark. North Little Rock is now even with Conway at 7-4. Little Rock Catholic and Cabot are 6-5, Van Buren 5-5 followed by Little Rock Central (5-7) and Russellville (1-11). If the Hornets can defeat Cabot on Tuesday then go to North Little Rock and win on Thursday, they can at worst share the conference title and earn a first-round bye at the Class 7A State Tournament.

With 10 days left in the season, incredibly, any one of the top six teams could still manage a share of the conference championship.[more]

“This gets us back on track for tomorrow,” Jobe said. “We need a win against Cabot. They’ve already beat us once.”

The Hornets fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first of Monday’s game as Davidson struggled a bit with his control. Hunter Colson walked, Sebastian Stargell laced the only hit of the inning to right center and, an out later, Ryan Dardenne walked to load the bases. Davidson got Collin Massanelli to ground to second. The Hornets were able to get the force at second but the relay to first was just late as Colson scored the game’s first run. A pitch later, Tyler Peters reached on an error that allowed the second run to score.

Davidson got John Lawson to fly to center to end the inning, however, and the Hornets went to work with the bats.

Chapel starter Bracy Bottoms couldn’t retire any of the five batters he faced. Caleb Garrett greeted him with a lead-off double that was misplayed in the outfield allowing him to go to third. Chris Joiner, subbing for the injured Garrett Bock, was hit by a pitch and Mayall cracked the first of his two doubles in the game to break the seal. A walk to Jobe loaded the bases for Sawyer, who laced a single to left to put the Hornets on top 3-2.

Bottoms gave way to Jeremy Brann who finally got an out on a comebacker but Brennan Bullock drove in a run with a grounder to second and, after Brown was hit by a pitch, Brady Butler singled to make it 5-2.

“Coming back after they scored two — once we got through the first and I knew that we had some confidence at the plate and we were going to swing the bat and be aggressive, I felt all right about it,” stated Hornets coach Kirk Bock. “We just haven’t been aggressive at the plate. I mean, we’ve been taking fastballs. We have approaches that we do but we’re always going to hit the fastball.

“I knew we weren’t going to peak too soon,” added the coach. “At times, we got good hitting and our defense has gone down or the defense has been good and the hitting has gone down. Maybe we’re going to get into the swing of it. I’m excited about getting the bats rolling again.”

Davidson, who walked eight in 5 1/3 innings, issued two in the second along with surrendering a single by Antwoine Jackson. But he fanned Colson and got Ryan Bowlin to bounce into an inning-ending doubleplay to keep it 5-2. He worked around a single in the third. In the fourth, he issued a one-out walk to Jackson but Jobe gunned him down trying to steal moments before Colson banged a double to left. Stargell bounced back to Davidson to end the threat.

In the meantime, the Hornets were adding to their lead. In the second, Mayall cracked his second double past third and, with two down, Sawyer singled him home.

In the fourth, Mayall drew a one-out walk and Jobe hit a grounder to Jackson at second. Jackson tried to get a tag on Mayall then throw to first for a doubleplay to end the inning but it was ruled that he’d missed Mayall. Despite the protests of Chapel coach Wayne Richardson, the play stood and it proved to be a big call. Sawyer doubled Mayall home then Justin Blankenship doubled in Sawyer to make it 8-2.

Chapel got two runs back in the top of the fifth and had the bases loaded with two down. But Davidson got Colson to fly to Garrett in center to end the frame with Bryant leading 8-4. Dardenne had doubled, Massanelli, Lawson and Josh White singled to drive in the runs. Jackson walked to load the bags.

“I was very pleased with Davidson,” Bock said. “His pitch count got up there. Sometimes he wasn’t around the plate but other times he was around the plate. You can live with it being around the plate. Once his pitch count started getting up, you know you’re losing some juice. But I was pleased he picked up a win in his first varsity start. The fifth kind of took it out of him.”

In the home fifth, however, singles by Butler, who was forced at second on a sacrifice attempt by Garrett, then Joiner and Mayall loaded the bases for Jobe who got hold of a 2-1 pitch and drove it over the fence down the right-field line.

It was Jobe’s first varsity slam. “I hit one my sophomore year when I was playing JV,” he related. “I hit it against Central. I was a little nervous for my hitting streak. I wanted to keep it alive. It was an inside fastball.”

Davidson got the first out of the sixth but walked the next two and Bock brought on Stitch. After a force at second, an infield hit by Peters got a run home but the sophomore right-hander got Lawson to bounce to Mayall at third who tagged out Massanelli to end the inning.

The Hornets got that run back in the bottom of the inning when Brown was hit by a pitch, Garrett singled and Joiner walked to load the bases. Mayall drew a free pass to force in a run and, with the bases loaded and Jobe back at the plate, Colson relieved for the Wildcats. No doubt contemplating a second slam in as many innings, Jobe fouled out to third to end the inning.

Queck allowed a one-out single to Jackson but retired Colson and Stargell on groundouts to close out the victory.

BRYANT 13, WATSON CHAPEL 5

Wildcats Hornets

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Colson, ss-p 4 1 1 0 Garrett, cf 5 2 2 0

Stargell, cf 4 1 1 0 Joiner, dh 3 2 1 0

Bowlin, rf 3 1 0 0 Mayall, 3b 3 4 3 2

Dardenne, c 2 0 2 0 Jobe, c 4 1 1 4

Moore, cr 0 1 0 0 Wade, cr 0 1 0 0

Massanelli, lf 4 1 1 2 Sawyer, ss 4 2 3 4

Peters, 3b 4 0 1 1 Blankenship, rf 4 0 1 1

Lawson, 1b 4 0 1 0 Bullock, lf 3 0 1 1

White, dh 3 0 1 1 Brown, 2b 2 1 0 0

Jackson, 2b 2 0 2 0 Butler, 1b 4 0 2 1

Bottoms, p 0 0 0 0 Davidson, p 0 0 0 0

Brann, p 0 0 0 0 Stitch, p 0 0 0 0

Sorey, p 0 0 0 0 Queck, p 0 0 0 0

Harrison, ss 0 0 0 0

Totals 30 5 10 4 Totals 32 13 14 13

Watson Chapel 200 021 0 — 5

BRYANT 510 241 x — 13

E—Mayall, Stargell. DP—Bryant 1. LOB—Watson Chapel 13, Bryant 9. 2B—Garrett, Mayall 2, Colson, Sawyer, Blankenship. HR—Jobe.

ip r er h bb so

Watson Chapel

Bottoms (L) 0 5 5 3 1 0

Brann  4 3 3 6 2 2

Sorey 1.2 5 5 5 2 1

Colson 0.1 0 0 0 0 0

Bryant

Davidson (W, 2-0) 5.1 5 4 8 8 4

Stitch 0.2 0 0 1 0 0

Queck 1 0 0 1 0 0

Bottoms faced five batters in the first.

HBP—Brown 2 (by Brann) (by Storey), Joiner (by Bottoms). WP—Sorey.