Hornets win in dramatic fashion after Lake Hamilton’s comeback
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continue 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 Jon Harrison
A six-run third then a walk-off base hit by Hayden Lessenberry in extra innings gave the[more] Bryant Hornets their third win of the season at Bryant High School Field Saturday afternoon. Bryant outlasted the Lake Hamilton Wolves, 8-7.
Lake Hamilton jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Dalton Daniels and Levi Runyan each singled and were brought in on a double from Carter Greathouse.
Bryant answered in the second on a sacrifice fly from Hayden Daniel scoring Lessenberry, who reached on a base hit to lead off the inning.
In the third inning, Bryant broke it open scoring six run on six hits, knocking out Lake Hamilton starting pitcher Caleb Marsh. Josh Pultro singled in a run then Lessenberry and Dyan Cross cracked consecutive RBI doubles to highlight the inning.
The Hornets looked as though they would cruise to victory but Lake Hamilton took advantage of good hitting and a couple of costly errors from Bryant and tied it up in the top of the seventh.
Cross, the Hornets’ starter on the mound, was solid throughout the game, though with four errors behind him in the game, he wound up throwing a lot of pitches. Tyler Nelson came on in relief in the seventh and stopped the bleeding, forcing the Wolves to strand the go-ahead run at second.
Bryant had a chance to close the door in the bottom of the seventh. Cross was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game to lead off the inning. A sacrifice bunt by Chase Tucker followed by a single from Hayden Daniel left Bryant with first and third and one out.
Lake Hamilton caught a break as Ozzie Hurt popped out to the third baseman and the Wolves were able to double up Daniel at first.
Nelson made easy work of Lake Hamilton in the top of the eighth, striking out two and inducing a weak groundout.
In the bottom of the eighth, Bryant’s Trevor Ezell walked then by a base hit from Jordan Taylor, who was 4 for 4 on the day. A throwing error by Lake Hamilton would set the stage for Lessenberry to drive in the winning run.
The Hornets will return to action on Thursday at 4 p.m., taking on the Pine Bluff Zebras in the first round of the annual Billy Bock Classic at Taylor Field in Pine Bluff.
rch
Nice article Bird. If you are interested in this you can learn from the best-Rob.
It’s kind of fun to recap the game–when I did this for the Legion I found myself rewriting articles multiple times to try and get it right.
Good job. ch