Daniel fans Sox-record 19 versus Benton
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By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
BENTON — Craig Harrison, the manager of the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team, is into numbers. It’s his business and, when it comes to baseball stats, a hobby. Over the 13 years he and his brother Tic have been coaching the Bryant team, Harrison has kept extensive statistics and records.
It’s an interesting little publication he puts together to begin every season.
And, as of Tuesday, May 27, there’s a new entry in those records. One that goes right to the top of an impressive list.
In 1995, big Ben Hickman, who would later be drafted by the Florida Marlins, struck out 18 Fayetteville batters in a nine-inning game during a Black Sox run at a State championship. That had been at the top of Harrison’s list of most strikeouts in a game.
Now, that is second to the 19 punch-outs that left-hander Trent Daniel recorded in seven innings against the rival Benton McClendon’s team at Bill Perry Field in Bernard Holland Park.
Daniel allowed just three hits as the Sox picked up their second win in Area IV competition, 5-1, improving to 5-0 on the season.
The 19 strikeouts was the most since Aaron Davidson fanned 17 in nine innings during the Sox’ 2007 State championship run. The record for a seven-inning game was held by Travis Wood, now pitching in the Cincinnati Reds organization, with 17 against Kansas City, Kansas in 2003.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and that is probably the best — what Davidson did at State last year was pretty impressive against Fayetteville — but 21 outs in a seven-inning game and 19 go down, I mean that’s just unbelievable,” Harrison said after Tuesday’s performance by Daniel. “We extended him a little bit at the end but with where he was with the strikeouts and he’s got a week and two days off — that’s the kind of guy you win States with.”
“We’ve told the rest of our guys, we’re not going to throw him every third day or every fourth day, we’re going to spread him out like we did Aaron last year,” added the manager. “Some of the other guys are going to have to throw in critical situations. But, to get a league game against Benton — and they battled, it was a tough ballgame — I was proud of the outcome and I’m really proud of what Trent did.”
Daniel walked just one. That came in the third inning after a single by Alec Mann stopped his game-opening string of retiring eight in a row (six on strikes). But he fanned Blake Childress to end the inning.
The next batter to reach base was pinch-hitter Brant Abbott, who got into a 1-2 delivery from Daniel and pounded it over the fence in right-center for a home run, accounting for Benton’s lone tally.
Daniel went on to strike out the side to keep the score 4-1. He then fanned four in the sixth (one reached on a third-strike pitch in the dirt that got past catcher Kaleb Jobe) and struck out the side in the seventh around a two-out double by Abbott.
So, the last 10 outs of the game came on strikes.
The Sox gave their starter all the runs he’d need in the first inning off UALR pitcher Mark Lewis.
A two-out walk to Tyler Sawyer got things started. He advanced on a wild pitch and scored the game’s first run on a single to right by David Guarno. Jobe, who was on base four times and had two hits, followed with a double to the fence in left-center that chased Guarno home all the way from first. Jobe then scored on a single by Jordan Knight and the lead was 3-0.
The Sox tacked on a run in the fourth when Drew Ransdell walked. With two down, Cody Walker blooped a single to right on a hit-and-run, allowing Ransdell to sprint to third. And when a pickoff throw from Lewis got past first baseman Max Boshiers, Ransdell scored to make it 4-0.
Bryant tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh off Benton reliever Heston Besancon. Daniel singled, Sawyer was hit by a pitch and, with two down, Jobe singled to left. With Knight at the plate, Besancon uncorked a wild pitch allowing Daniel to come home, setting the final score.
