Yant, Wood debut; Hornets cruise, 8-1
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
SHERIDAN — Senior Scott Yant, already signed to play baseball next year at UALR, and junior B.J. Wood made successful debuts combining with Jeff Carpenter to stop the Malvern Leopards on four hits in an 8-1 victory for the Bryant Hornets in the first round of the Sheridan Invitational Tournament Monday.
Yant and Wood, who figure to be big contributors for the Hornets this season, joined the team after completing the Bryant basketball campaign at the Class AAAAA State Tournament in Fort Smith on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
The win improved the Hornets to 7-1 on the season going into a second-round game on Tuesday.
Yant faced seven batters in two innings of work allowing only one hard-hit ball, a lead-off single to Brad Daniel in the second. He walked Kevin Bryant with one out in the first but then started a 1-6-3 doubleplay off a comebacker from Leighton Hardin to get out of the inning.
In the second, after Daniel’s hit, Yant finished with a flurry, striking out three in a row.
Wood relieved in the third and gave up a two-out triple to Keetow Hearn and an RBI single to Bryant, but little else over 2 1/3 innings. He issued a one-out walk to Blake Bailey in the fourth but Bailey was gunned down trying to steal by Hornets catcher Cody Graddy.
Wood, who fanned three as well, allowed a second walk with one out in the fifth and Carpenter was called in to relieve. He quickly disarmed the inning by picking off Josh Manis then getting Lynn Honeycutt to ground out.
Carpenter finished the game, getting out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh with the help of a doubleplay started by Yant at short.
“For no more work than they’ve had on the mound, both (Yant and Wood) looked good,” commented Hornets head coach Terry Harper. “Hopefully, Scotty’ll be ready to go again on Friday.”
The Hornets were set to open the AAAAA-South Conference double round-robin schedule on Friday at home against arch-rival Benton.
“They both looked good in the field, too,” Harper noted. “It didn’t look like they’d missed a beat. They were a little shaky at the plate but we all were tonight. We were all a little bit out in front and didn’t make good adjustments until late in the game.”
A four-run fifth broke the game open for the Hornets who were led offensively by Carpenter and Graddy who each had two hits. Graddy smacked his second home run of the season and drove in three.
Bryant had initially taken the lead in the bottom of the second when Kevin Littleton walked and stole a base, then raced home when Bailey, the Malvern pitcher, threw wildly to first on Clay Jones’ dribbler down the first-base line.
In the second, Matt White, who scored three runs and swiped two bases, reached on an error and stole second. Carpenter singled him to third and, from there, he scored on a wild pitch.
It stayed 2-1 until the Bryant fifth. Again, White reached on an error. He moved up to second on a wild pitch, took third on Carpenter’s second single and scored on a base hit to left by Graddy.
Carpenter and courtesy runner Zack Cardinal moved up to second and third on Derek Chambers’ roller to first. Littleton was intentionally walked to load the bases for left-hand hitting Jones who came through in the clutch with a two-run single on a 2-2 pitch from Hardin, a lefty, on in relief of Bailey.
A bloop single by Cody Dreher chased Littleton home and the Hornets had a more comfortable 6-1 lead over the defending Class AAAA State champion Leopards.
“Clay’s hit was big,” Harper said. “It kind of took a little bit of pressure off of us.”
Graddy wrapped up the scoring in the sixth with his two-out, two-run blast to left. White, who had walked, scored ahead of him.
The two steals by White along with Littleton’s theft gave the Hornets 35 stolen bases in their eight games this season.
Allowing just one earned run in the game, lowered the pitching staff’s earned run average to 1.75.
“The pitching a defense was definitely there,” Harper emphasized, noting that in 52 innings, the Hornet pitchers have issued just 20 walks with the four surrendered in Monday’s game. “I don’t even want to talk about that, though. I don’t want them to even think about it. That’s unheard of in high school.
“We’ve made errors in the past, but they haven’t been in front of or behind walks,” he noted. “That’s what’s keeping us in games. Tonight, our pitching and defense kept us in the game before, finally, the hitting came around.”
