Unbeaten Panthers survive Hornets
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 ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
BENTON — For seven innings, the Bryant Hornets played the unbeaten Benton Panthers even. In the bottom of the eighth, however, Clark Belew singled over a drawn-in infield to plate Brett Huskey as the Panthers escaped with a 4-3 win in a pool-play showdown at a tournament in Benton Tuesday night.
Both teams had downed Lake Hamilton earlier in the evening. The Panthers rolled to a 20-1 victory then the Hornets won handily 13-4.
Despite giving the loaded Panthers, who improved to 12-0 with the two wins Tuesday, as tough a tussle as they’d had all season, Hornets’ head coach Terry Harper said his team, now 8-6, was far from satisfied with a moral victory.
“Close, shoulda-beens and coulda-beens don’t get you anywhere,” he stated. “But we’ve made great strides since Shreveport.”
The Hornets suffered half of their losses at the Arkansas/Louisiana Challenge in Shreveport Feb. 25-27.
“But I don’t think anyone out there is satisfied with where we’re at,” Harper continued. “I think this team is going to continue to get better. They’ve got to have the same intensity on a day-in and day-out basis as they do during games — not just games, we’ve got to have it in practice. They’re doing a good job, but there’s ways we definitely can improve. And I don’t think there’s a one out there that’s satisfied with what they’re doing on an everyday basis.
“And that’s great,” he added. “They hate losing right now. They’re not accepting it at all. And that’s what’s going to make them a good team.”
The Hornets got another splendid pitching performance from Michael McClellan who pitched into the eighth, allowing just one walk and fanning three. He retired the first 10 batters he faced in the game while his teammates built a 3-0 lead. And the Hornets backed him with errorless defense, save for a mental mistake in the tell-tale eighth.
“Michael did a heck of a job,” Harper noted. “It starts with pitching and it ends with pitching. For him to keep us in the game like (he did) is huge. But he is hurting right now — mentally, not physically. He’s a horse, a bulldog. He wants the ball and he wants the ball because they beat him and that’s what we talk about. That’s motivation. You’ve got to remember how it feels (to lose) and go on. And they’re getting that.
“Now I want to see as much improvement as we had from Shreveport to now, from tonight to conference,” Harper concluded. “If that happens, we’ll have a shot to get to the State Tournament and that’s our ultimate goal, get to the State Tournament then see what happens.”
The Hornets were opportunistic early in the game, taking advantage of three Benton errors in the first inning to plate two runs. Tad Beene reached on a game-opening miscue then Billy Landers, attempting a sacrifice bunt, got on base thanks to a bad throw. J.J. Yant sacrificed the runners to second and third and, an out later, Kris Kuykendall’s roller to second was misplayed allowing both runners to hustle home.
While McClellan was crusing through the Benton lineup without a hitch, the Hornets added a run in the third. Beene beat out an infield single, Landers sacrificed him to second and Yant drove him home with a single up the middle.
But Benton starter Buck Whittle allowed just two hits the rest of the way without giving up a walk. The Panthers committed their fourth error of the game in the sixth but erased it with a doubleplay.
Clark Belew ended McClellan’s perfect game when he sliced a double to right with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Jeremy Perry rifled a liner to third but Kuykendall stabbed it for a second out. But two pitches later, Clay Goodwin lined one off the fence in right to chase Belew home.
Goodwin advanced to second on a wild pitch and the count went to 3-2 on Boyd Goodner before McClellan froze him with an eye-popping curve on the outside corner for the strikeout that ended the inning with Bryant still up 3-1.
In the fifth, however, Nathaniel Doddridge led off with a chopper behind the mound for an infield single. McClellan then fell behind the next two batters 3-0. He was able to battle back and retire Claigh Roseberry on a fly to right but, on a 3-1 count, Jeremy McGinty belted a game-tying homer to right.
Neither team threatened after that until the bottom of the eighth when Benton’s Brett Huskey slapped a double to right. Belew faked a bunt and when Kuykendall charged, it left third base open. Huskey swiped the base and the Hornets were forced to bring everyone in tight to try to cut off the run at the plate. Belew then delivered the game-winning blow, a liner to right-center that may have fallen in even had center fielder Brandon Fitts been in his normal position. So, the mistake on Huskey’s steal may have been academic.
