Yant, Bryant AAA blanks North Little Rock’s Colts
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NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The splendid work of the Bryant Black Sox pitching staff continued on Wednesday, May 23, when right-hander Scott Yant whipped up a sparkling five-hit shutout against the well-regarded North Little Rock Colts at DeJanus Field in Burns Park.
Though North Little Rock had runners on base in every inning, only once did one get past second. Yant walked just two and fanned four in the six 8-0 win which improved the Black Sox to 5-0 on the season.
Offensively, Chris Sory went 2-for-3 and scored twice while Matt White and Beau Hamblin each knocked in a pair of runs.
The game was a scoreless duel between Yant and North Little Rock’s Nick Weaver for the first three innings. Yant pitched around a one-out double in the first, bunt and bloop base hits in the second, and an error in the third. A doubleplay helped in the second. Sory, at third, speared a line drive off of Scott Vincent’s bat then rifled a throw to second to pick off Jered Blasko. Yant then fanned Chad Siebold to end the inning.
In the third, a one-out throwing error allowed Chris Watts to reach second. He became the only Colts baserunner to get to third when he advanced on Owen Handloser’s bouncer to second. But he was stranded when Yant got Ken Merrill to ground to third.
Weaver, meanwhile, pitched around a two out walk to Michael McClellan and a double by Matt Brown in the first. In the second, Cody Graddy beat out an infield hit then Jordan Davis walked. Both moved up a base on a ground out to first by Derek Chambers but were stranded when Weaver fanned the next two.
In the third, a North Little Rock doubleplay erased a one-out walk to Dustin Morris.
And Weaver retired the first two he faced in the fourth. But it took a long time to get that third out. Davis cracked a double to right-center to get things going. After a walk to Chambers, Chris Sory and Matt White came through with RBI singles. Walks to Morris and McClellan forced in a third run. White scored when Matt Brown’s grounder to third was booted then Morris made it 5-0 by scampering home on a wild pitch.
That’s really all Yant needed. He pitched around a one-out single and a walk in the bottom of the fourth and surrendered a two-out walk to no effect in the fifth.
In the top of the sixth, Bryant put itself in position for the run-rule ending, scoring three times. Sory led off with a double, advanced on a passed ball and scored on White’s sacrifice fly. Walks to Morris and McClellan and a tap to first that advanced them to second and third set up Hamblin who put the finishing touches on the uprising with a two-run single up the middle.
Eric Mercado singled to start the bottom of the inning but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double as Graddy, in left, hit Brown, the cutoff man, who relayed to Morris at second for the out. Yant retired the next two with no trouble to end the game.
Yant improved to 2-0 on the season with the victory.
