MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Meagan Chism belted a homer and a double while Gianni Hulett pitched a one-hitter over six innings as the Bryant Lady Hornets picked up their second win, 8-1, over the Knoxville, Tenn., Austin East Lady Roadrunners at the Southern Warrior Classic at Riverdale High School on Thursday.
Later in the day, however, Bryant absorbed a 17-0 loss to the Baylor Lady Red Raiders of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Now 7-3 on the season, the Lady Hornets were set to play the Plainfield, Ill., East, Lady Bengals and Coffee County Central Lady Red Raiders of Manchester, Tenn.
Thursday’s victory was tight for five innings. The Lady Hornets led 2-1 going into the sixth then scored six times to blow the game open.
Austin East’s lone hit was an RBI single by Sydney Self in the bottom of the third. Brylee Yarbrough scored to tie the game 1-1 at the time after she had reached on a three-base error.
Hulett, who walked one and fanned eight, kept it tied by striking out the side after that. She retired 11 of the last 12 she faced. The lone baserunner came in the fifth when Yarbrough was plunked by a pitch with one out. But Self lined back to Hulett, who whipped a throw to Lexi Helton at first for an inning-ending doubleplay.
The game was actually scoreless through two frames. In the top of the third, Heather Hammett reached on an error and Maddie Thompson beat out a bunt single. Hammett tried to get to third on the play but was thrown out. Thompson, however, took advantage of a relay to second to get to third. She scored the game’s first run on Hulett’s sacrifice fly.
In the top of the fourth, Regan Dillon laced a single to center with one out for Bryant. With Avari Allen running for Dillon, Alissa Suarez got a sacrifice bunt down. Allen then scored from second on a single to center by Helton to make it 2-1.
Hulett singled with two down in the top of the fifth but was stranded. In the sixth, however, Chism led off with a liner over the fence in left to make it 3-1.
Dillon kept the inning going with a single to right. Allen came on to run once again for the Bryant catcher and Suarez ripped a double to center.
After a pitching change with runners at second and third, Bella Herring was struck by a pitch to load the bases with one away. That set to table for Hayleigh Beck’s bases-clearing double.
Up 6-1, the Lady Hornets tacked on two more before the inning was over. Though Beck was caught trying to steal third, Thompson and Hulett cracked singles and, after they executed a double steal, Aly Bowers ripped a two-run double to set the final score.
In the second game of the day, Lady Hornets’ head coach Lisa Dreher got some pitching experience for a couple of underclassmen and the Baylor team took advantage scoring 17 runs on 19 hits including four home runs.
Meanwhile, the Lady Red Raiders’ Syd Berzon and Raven Jones held Bryant to just two hits, a single by Suarez in the second and a double by Hulett in the fourth. They walked no one and struck out six.
Baylor scored four in the top of the second, five in the fourth and eight in the top of the fifth.
