Daniel pitches Bryant to key league victory
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 TIMES
In a battle for a share of first place in Zone IV, the Bryant Black Sox got a splendid pitching performance from lefty Trent Daniel while making the most of their opportunities to score, to down Little Rock Post 1 Blue, 6-2, in Senior American Legion action at Bryant High School Field on Monday, June 23.
The Sox were coming off a disappointing 7-4 loss at North Little Rock but started a key week in their bid for another regular-season league title on a positive note. Bryant was set to follow up the win over Blue with games against Lake Hamilton (which will be included in the Zone IV district tournament but is not playing a regular-season league slate) on Tuesday, and league rivals Little Rock Continental Express on Wednesday and Pine Bluff on Friday.
We needed this one,” declared manager Craig Harrison. “Blue only had one loss and everybody else (in the Zone) has (at least) two and we knew that (Blue’s Dustin) Ward was a really good pitcher. And I thought we needed to win tonight for our confidence after not playing very well against the two teams in Mountain Home and at North Little Rock. We really wanted to come out and get a win against a good team. With Ward on the mound, they are tough to beat. We’ll see tomorrow night. It’s going to be difficult because we put so much emphasis on tonight, hopefully we won’t be flat tomorrow night.”
Daniel, who recently committed to pitch at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (after his previous commitment to Arkansas State was voided by the dismissal of the head coach), allowed just one hit over the first five innings as the Sox built a 6-0 lead. The key point in the game came in the second. With the Sox up 2-0, Blue loaded the bases with no one out on walks to Tim Watson and Dustin Ward around a base hit by Michael Marsh.
Manager Craig Harrison visited his hurler. “I said, ‘Right here, we’re down in the order,’” he recounted. “’We’ve been working on trying to get ahead (in the count). Now, we want the strikeout here on the seven hole. If we can get, then we can get out of the inning without them hurting us. Let’s don’t compound the trouble and let them get back to the top of the order with men on base. Let’s take care of the bottom guys.’ And he got it done.”
Indeed, Daniel proceeded to strike out three in a row to end the threat. It was the start of a string in which he retired 12 straight. He would strike out 12 and allow just three hits in six innings.
“We put a lot of emphasis on this game,” noted Harrison. “We put a lot of emphasis on it (Sunday) night. We had a really good practice when we talked about taking advantage of what we thought we could take advantage of and that was behind the plate and, possibly, at first. They had a different first baseman but the catcher was what we really wanted to focus on because we knew the pitcher was going to be strong and we weren’t going to string a bunch of hits together. But we worked on reading (the catcher) going to his knees and, even if he caught the ball clean, we were going to try to run. Anything in the outfield, we were going to try to take the extra base. We just had to manufacture runs like that.”
David Guarno provided a pressure release early on offense. With one out in the bottom of the first, Kaleb Jobe had reached on a third-strike wild pitch but remained at first as Blue ace Dustin Ward fanned Tyler Sawyer. Guarno got ahead in the count then laced a 2-1 delivery to the gap right right-center for a triple. Moments later, he scored on an infield hit by Pickett to make it 2-0.
“Dave getting us off to a good start there in the first inning was big and we kind of fed off that,”
Still, Ward and Daniel dueled. The Sox got another chance in the fourth when Jordan Knight blooped a single, stole second and took third on a balk. Daniel delivered a sacrifice fly and the Sox had manufactured a third run. Michael Haydon walked, Sergio Arias singled then both moved up on a wild pitch but Ward struck out the next two to leave them there.
In the fifth, however, Tyler Brown relieved for Blue and the Sox took advantage of some wildness by the right-hander, waiting out a trio of one-out walks. Guarno, Pickett and Knight loaded the bases and Daniel came through with a clutch single. Haydon delivered a sacrifice fly and Arias singled on an 0-2 pitch to make it 6-0 as all three that had walked came home to roost.
Daniel ran into trouble in the top of the sixth. Jamal Jefferson broke his string of outs with a single up the middle, advancing to second on a passed ball. Daniel struck out Tyler Brown and got Taylor Brown to bounce to third as Jefferson advanced. Tim Watson walked then an error kept the inning alive as Jefferson scored and Marsh reached. Ward followed with an RBI single to make it 6-2 only to have Daniel bear down and strike out Bradley Silfies to end the inning.
In the seventh, Tim Bearden took over but another error opened the inning allowing Davis Ward to reach base. John Gray followed with a grounder to second that, in his haste to try to get the doubleplay, Arias bobbled. He was able to get the force then Jefferson grounded to him again for another force at second with Arias making a nice unassisted putout.
Bearden got within a strike of ending it but Tyler Brown lined his 3-2 delivery into left for a single. Taylor Brown walked and the bases were loaded with clean-up hitter Tim Watson coming to the plate. Harrison brought in Sawyer and he got Watson to bounce into a force at third to end the game.
“Trent was at 105 so we went to Tim, knowing we had Tyler to follow him up if we needed,” Harrison related. “I told myself that, if they got the tying run to the plate — I didn’t think Tim was pitching bad, we just didn’t play defense for him, he could’ve been out of the inning. But, when he walked a guy, I was worried that Watson might turn on one his fastballs and tie it up. So, we brought Sawyer in and, when I noticed they were taking, I said, ‘Let’s get the fastball over then we’ll work him with breaking pitches.’ The first pitch was a ball, the second they were taking so we went fastball for a strike then two breaking pitches and he hit the ball to third and we made the play.
“We wanted to get this game,” he emphasized. “Sawyer’s set to pitch on Wednesday, but you never know what might happen. It might rain. He only threw four pitches, so hopefully he’ll be ready.”
