Despite work, Yant gets back at it for save
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
JACKSONVILLE — Scotty Yant couldn’t wait to get back out on the mound. So, despite the fact that his ace had thrown over 100 pitches the night before, Bryant Blacksox manager Craig Harrison, with the okay from Yant’s father Jeff, had him warmup as the team’s 4-0 lead became more and more tenuous in the sixth inning of their game with Jacksonville Gwatney Chevrolet at Dupree Park on Thursday, June 27.
Yant’s was anxious because in the Wednesday night outing against Pine Bluff Simmons First, he had only gone three innings while making those 100-plus pitches and, though the Bankers didn’t exactly light him up, he surrendered six runs, all earned, nearly doubling his total of seven earned runs for the entire season to that point.
And, as competitive as the UALR-bound right-hander is, that just didn’t sit well.
So, when Jeff Carpenter, the second pitcher of the night for Bryant against Jacksonville, began to struggle with his control in the sixth, hit a batter to force in a run and walked a batter to force in another, Yant was called upon to diffuse the situation. With Bryant clinging to a 4-2 lead, the bases loaded and two out, Yant blew away Gwatney’s Clayton McDonald on four pitches to get out of the jam, then retired the side 1-2-3 in the ninth for his second save of the season.
The win improved the Sox to 19-8 on the season. It was their third victory of the week including that comeback win over top-ranked Pine Bluff and it left them on the verge of earning a No. 1 ranking in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. (And sure enough, in the Dem-Gaz of Saturday, June 29, there they were.)
Harrison welcomed the rating. “I told these guys (players) earlier in the year, ‘Guys, we’re going to be there,’” Harrison related. “And they laughed. I don’t know if they believed me or just kind of halfway did. But that’s what it’s about. I want to be there. I want that top spot. Heck, if you’re going to be No. 2, you might as well be No. 1.”
The Sox had been ranked No. 2 much of the season after spending much of the summer of 2001 as the top-ranked team in the state.
“If we’re going to have a target on our backs, it might as well be the big one,” he added. “And we proved ourselves this week. We’d taken a couple of days off, then played a nice game against Sheridan (on Tuesday) — they pretty much gave it to us but we still hit the ball okay. Then, boy, we played a nice four last four innings against Pine Bluff and had some guys step up. We struggled tonight but (that’s the way we are) when we have these midweek after two big games. But we got a win and, boy, there for a moment I didn’t know. But Scotty stepped up for us and we got a few hits in the sixth that gave us some breathing room.”
It was, in fact, a bit of an odd pitcher’s duel for most of the game. Bryant starter Chance King only allowed one hit over the first three innings but he walked a couple and hit four batters. Carpenter relieved in the fourth and worked into the sixth allowing just two hits but he walked three and hit two more batters. For Jacksonville, Nathan Pruss limited Bryant to a run in the first for the first five innings but he walked a pair and hit two Sox batters. That’s eight hit-by-pitches in the first six innings — but none of them seemed intentional and there were no warnings or flare-ups.
Bryant took its 1-0 lead when B.J. Wood walked to open the game, swiped second, took third on a single by Cody Graddy and scored on a passed ball.
In the bottom of the inning, Jacksonville loaded the bases on a single and two hit batters but, with one out, Graddy, the Bryant catcher, picked off the runner at third then King end the inning with a strikeout.
Jacksonville wound up stranding 13 runners in the game, mostly because the Motormen couldn’t come up with a hit. They managed just three in the game — only two of those got out of the infield. None of them came with runners on.
It was still 1-0 going into the sixth when the Sox got to Pruss for three runs. With one out, Kevin Littleton got things revved up with a single up the middle. Derek Chambers then laced a double to left, chasing Littleton to third. He scored on a single by Andrew Norman which was followed by an RBI single from Clay Jones. Norman took third and Jones second on a grounder by David Moore then Norman hustled home on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
