Late burst lifts Sr. Sox
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
It’s almost become a Bryant Black Sox tradition. The second game of the season, they play a team they should overpower only to falter. The previous two seasons which both wound up with great successes, they actually lost and wound up running wind sprints in the outfield afterward. Call it a little attention-getter.
This season, it looked for awhile that that was a possibility again until the Sox came to life in the bottom of the fifth and piled up seven runs to turn a 3-2 head-shaker into a 10-2 run-rule win.
The Sox were shackled — sort of — by Hot Springs right-hander Jonathan Hall who only allowed one hit over three innings, a double by Cody Walker to start the bottom of the first. Part of the problem for the Sox was that Hall wasn’t throwing many strikes. In those three innings, he walked seven and it was enough for Bryant, despite just the one hit, to take a 3-0 lead.
Walker scored after advancing to third on Trent Daniel’s fly to right. Tyler Sawyer picked up the RBI with a grounder to second.
In the second, Jordan Knight and Tyler Pickett drew walks, advanced on a wild pitch and Sergio Arias drove in Knight with a sacrifice fly.
Walks to Daniel, David Guarno and Kaleb Jobe loaded the bases with one out in the third then Hall uncorked a wild pitch to allow Daniel to make it 3-0.
In the meantime, Drew Ransdell had Hot Springs shut out on two hits while striking out eight and walking just one.
Ben Wells relieved in the third for the Sox and Hot Springs took advantage of a pair of hits and a walk to get on the board. And, after reliever Tyler Ellis set the Sox down in order in the bottom of the inning, a two-base error and a double by Ellis cut the lead t4o 3-2. Ellis reached third on a wild pitch but was thrown out trying to score the tying run on a grounder to Arias at second. Wells struck out Andrew Love to end the inning and the Sox revved up the offense in the bottom of the inning to make it a blow out.
Daniel started the inning with an infield hit. Sawyer walked and Guarno was hit by a pitch to load the bases. A passed ball allowed Daniel to score then walks to Knight, Pickett and Michael Hayden kept the carousel going before Ellis gave way to Kyle Green. Arias greeted the new hurler with an RBI single. Walker doubled in a run and Daniel ended it with an RBI single up the middle.
At 2-0, the Sox were set to play their first Area IV game at home against Sheridan on Friday, May 23.
