Hornets reach finals of Sheridan tourney
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 — The Bryant Hornets’ bats woke up just in time.
After winning 5-0 with just three hits over Watson Chapel in the first round of the Sheridan Invitational Tournament on Saturday and, prior to that, getting just four hits in a 5-3 loss to Sylvan Hills on Thursday that cost them a shot at the championship of the J.A. Fair Tournament, the Hornets were in danger of missing out on another championship game when, with only three hits to their credit, they fell behind the Warren Lumberjacks 5-3 in the top of the sixth inning.
Down to their last three outs, the Hornets busted loose with six hits in the bottom of the sixth, including four run-scoring safeties in succession, as they rallied for an 8-5 victory at Oliver Williams Field.
The win, which improved the Hornets to 5-2 on the season, put them in Thursday’s title tilt against the Pulaski Academy Bruins.
“We’re battling every game,” commented Bryant head coach Terry Harper. “Every game, we’ve given ourselves a chance to win at the end. We haven’t been out of any game we’ve played.
“That’s a credit to the kids,” he noted. “They’re hanging in there and doing whatever it takes. They’re not getting the multiple hit games, but the hitting’s going to come. They’re working their tails off in the cages and on the field. They’re doing everything I ask them to do as far as practice time, working hard and giving it everything they’ve got. The effort is there from top to bottom.”
Uncharacteristically, the Hornets faltered on defense against Warren with five errors. Four of the ‘Jacks’ five runs were unearned against sophomore right-hander Zack Dickson who was making his first varsity start and wound up going the distance. He walked just two and struck out six while scattering five hits.
But two of those hits came right at the start of the game. Warren’s Perry Jones drilled a triple to right-center to lead off the first inning. A pitch later, Kerry Weaver singled him home.
Weaver swiped second then took third on a groundout by Josh McLain. He scored when Josh Bryant’s grounder drew a wild throw to first.
Bryant, who stayed at first base on the play, took off first second to try to get in a rundown that would give Weaver a chance to score. But a wild throw not only brought Weaver in but allowed Bryant to race to third. From there, he scored on a grounder to short by Trent Scoggin.
Bryant quickley cut into that 3-0 lead, however. In the bottom of the first, Matt White walked to lead things off. Brandon Nichols sacrificed him to second then White tagged and moved to third on a fly to center by Dustin Morris.
A walk to Anthony Rose put runners at the corners and it appeared that Warren would get out of the inning when Michael McClellan bounced to second. But the Jacks’ John Denton threw wildly to first and White scored. Rose, who wound up at third, scored moments later when Matt Brown’s grounder to third was booted.
In the second, Warren loaded the bases but the Hornets worked a pickoff. Dickson threw behind the runner at second and caught him off the bag. The runner, Reid McKinney broke tried to get into a rundown as the lead runner Drew Robinson broke from third towards home. But Morris, the Hornets’ nifty second baseman calmly threw to the plate ahead of Robinson. Catcher Beau Hamblen ran him back towards third and threw to McClellan, the third baseman, for the out.
Dickson then walked Jones to load the bags again but he struck out Weaver and got McLean to fly to Nichols in left to get out of the jam unscathed.
In turn, the Hornets pulled even when White blasted a two-out, two-strike solo home, his team-leading third of the season.
Dickson proceded to retire nine batters in a row, a streak that ended only when Weaver hit a comebacker to the mound. Dickson lobbed a throw to first but first baseman Anthony Rose lost the ball in the sun, setting just behind the left-field fence.
Weaver wound up at second. He then moved to third on a wild pitch as McLain walked. But Weaver held at third when McLain was thrown out trying to steal as Hamblen made a fine throw. And when White charged in to snare a shallow fly by Chad Young the inning was over with the score still tied.
Despite a single in the third by Rose, another hit in the fourth by Hamblen and a one-out walk to Morris in the fifth, the Hornets were unable to snap the deadlock, either.
In the sixth, Dickson retired the first two he faced then got Robinson to hit a slow roller to third that just evaded the glove of the charging McClellan. With a runner on first, McKinney smoked a liner over the left-field fence to give Warren a 5-3 lead all of a sudden.
But, in the bottom of the inning, Brown greeted McLain with a worm-burner into center for a base hit. An out later, Dickson smacked one up the middle.
But, with two down, neither had moved. That’s when the hit parade really got going. White slapped one past Young at third for an RBI single then Nichols rifled one down the line for an RBI double that tied the game.
McLain went to 2-0 on Morris who then lined a run-scoring single to left.
Rose followed with a drive off the fence in left that not only chased in Nichols for third but allowed Morris to race home all the way from first to make it 8-5.
In the seventh, Jones led off with a fine bunt single. But he wandered too far off first when Weaver lined to center and White was able to throw behind him for a doubleplay. Dickson then got Weaver to ground out to Tad Beene at short to end the game.
“Zack settled down after the first inning and came up big for us,” Harper said. “Then the bats came alive toward the end of the game and it was huge.
“We’re doing a lot of good things right now,” he mentioned. “Whoever I put into the lineup is contributing and there’ll be others get in there that will when their chance comes. These guys are learning and they’re growing. Toward the end of the year, I expect a lot of good things. When it all clicks, when we put it all together, we’ll be tough.”
