No. 11 comes at Oxford’s expense
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
LITTLE ROCK — Dustin Morris told teammate Matt Lewis that he would’ve caught it if he’d seen it. As it was, Blake Pizan’s hard grounder to the right of Morris, the Bryant Black Sox AAA American Legion team’s second baseman, got through despite a diving attempt.
Morris, who usually wears contact lenses, had had trouble with them that Monday night and was wearing his glasses. Not that it affected him that much, though. He saw well enough at the plate to rip an RBI double and walk twice.
But, he claimed — sincerely or not — he would’ve had Pizan’s single. And, as it turned out, that was the only hit that Oxford Printing of Little Rock managed in six innings against Bryant’s Michael McClellan who turned in an over-powering performance as the Black Sox extended their season-opening winning streak to 11 games with a 7-0 win on Monday at J.A. Fair’s War Eagles Field.
McClellan struck out eight, walked just one and gave up that lone hit in his six innings. On a pitch limit, he gave way to budding closer Kevin Littleton in the seventh and, despite a second Oxford hit, Littleton completed the shutout.
The Sox pounded Oxford ace Zac Bradley for seven runs and 10 hits in five innings. The key blow was a grand slam homer by Matt Brown in the fourth.
McClellan retired the first eight batters he faced and would’ve had nine in a row but for an error by Brown at short. McClellan came back to strike out Zack Davis to end that inning.
The Sox had taken a 3-0 lead in the top of the third. Matt White singled to start the uprising. He stole second and, an out later, scored easily when McClellan crushed a Bradley delivery off the fence in right-center for a double — a shot that obviously impressed the Printers as they would later show.
Brown followed with a single and Beau Hamblin drew a walk to load the bases for Cody Graddy. On his way to a 3-for-4 performance at the plate which extended his hitting streak to 11 (all of Bryant’s games), Graddy rifled a two-run single into left to make it 3-0.
In the fourth, Chris Sory got things started for the Sox, slapping a single to right. An out later, Morris cracked his double putting runners at second and third. With McClellan at the plate, the count went to 3-1 and Oxford decided to go ahead and walk him intentionally. Now, it’s not often that you walk a third-place hitter to get to the clean-up man and, more than likely, the Printers won’t be doing it again soon. On the very next pitch after the walk was issued, Brown launched his second home run of the season to make it 7-0.
Bryant’s bid for a run-rule (eight-run lead after five innings) win was foiled, however. Beau Hamblin reached on an error and Graddy doubled him to third. But when Hamblin tried to tag up on a short fly to Davis in center, he was thrown out at the plate for an inning-ending doubleplay.
The bottom of the fourth opened with Pizan’s gem-busting single. He swiped second as McClellan struck out Bradley. Antoine James then worked for a walk after fouling off several 3-2 pitches.
Michael Arnold followed with a shot back at McClellan. The stout pitcher, who attends Henderson State University on a football scholarship, knocked it down, pounced on the ball and fired to second to start an eye-popping doubleplay to end the inning and the lone Oxford threat of the game.
McClellan went on to retire the next six in a row. He pled with manager Craig Harrison to let him finish despite the pitch limit, but Harrison, noting that it was early in a long season and there was no reason to test the right-hander’s limits at this point, brought in Littleton.
Bradley, the first batter Littleton faced, hit a grounder towards the hole between first and second that Derek Chambers, the Sox’ first baseman, ranged over to field as Littleton raced to cover the bag. The two connected nicely on the throw for the out.
James followed with a single but Littleton retired the next two, finishing with a strikeout.
