Five-run sixth dooms Warriors
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
LITTLE ROCK — Travis Wood and Daniel Price combined on a one-hitter against the Little Rock Hall Warriors on Friday, April 4. And, for a large portion of the game, it felt like a good thing they did.
The Hornets needed a five-run uprising in the top of the sixth inning to extract a 7-3 AAAAA-Central Conference win over the Warriors at J.A. Fair High School Field.
Hall waited out six walks, had four batters hit by pitches and benefited from two Bryant errors, but could only come up with one hit, a bases-loaded looper to right that fell in front of outfielder A.J. Nixon who played the ball cautiously, either because he didn’t see it well off the bat or perhaps because the Hornets were clinging to a 2-0 lead at the time. If the ball had gotten past him, the Hornets might’ve suddenly found themselves trailing.
Wood, who set down 10 of the first 11 batters he faced in the game, had walked a man and hit a pair — both on two-strike pitches — to load the bags with one out in the fourth. His pitching adversary Nathan Coker fought off a 1-2 delivery for the opposite-field hit. The lead runner scored and the bases remained loaded but Wood struck out the next two batters to leave them there and preserve the Hornets’ lead.
The Hornets had 10 hits including two each by Scott Peeler, Andrew Norman, B.J. Wood and Todd Bryan.
Bryan, however, may have had the key at-bat of the game in the sixth. The Hornets’ lead was still 2-1 when, with one out, Coker walked B.J. Wood and Morgan Garner. With two down, Bryan came to the plate and fouled off six two-strike deliveries and earned a walk to load the bases.
Nixon followed with a two-run single and, after a pitching change, Travis Wood and Peeler cracked consecutive doubles to make it 7-1.
“That was a huge at-bat,” agreed Bryant head coach Terry Harper. “Todd, in the last three or four games, has come to life. He’s relaxed. He looks like a different person up there — the guy that we knew was there.”
Travis Wood, after come through with an unassisted doubleplay on a popped-up sacrifice bunt attempt to help squelch a Hall threat in the fifth, worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth. But he walked the first two batters in the seventh and Harper turned to Price.
“Anytime you have a lot of long counts, you’re going to have a high pitch count and it’s too early in his career to take a chance,” Harper said. “And we’ve got quality guys behind him. No sense in not letting someone else come in to see if they can do the job.”
Price hit a batter to load the bases then got the first out on a strikeout, an error allowed one run to score and, after another strikeout, a walk forced in a second run. But Price recorded his third strikeout of the inning to end the game.
“That’s the first time that Price has been in that kind of a pressure situation and, all in all, he worked through some adversity and got the job done,” Harper commented. “He’s throwing the ball pretty well right now.
“We made some bad base-running mistakes and kicked the ball around a couple of times where we haven’t been kicking it around and anytime you let a team stick around, it’s harder and harder to beat them,” added the coach. “Bad things start happening and they continue. But the guys hung in there and they battled and they showed composure. They did what it took when we needed it.”
Bryant had taken a 1-0 lead in the first when Nixon walked, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Norman’s two-out blast off the center field fence.
In the third, Bryan singled but was forced at second on a bouncer to short by Nixon. After a stolen base, Nixon scored on a two-out single to center by Peeler.
The win improved the Hornets to 12-2 overall this season, 5-1 in conference play.
