Wells spins one-hit shutout in Senior Sox’ win at Pine Bluff
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
PINE BLUFF — Not many hurlers at the American Legion level have pitches that break away from both a right-handed hitter and a left-handed hitter.
It’s a tough combination.
When he’s right, Bryant’s Ben Wells is one of those few. His slider can break sharply away from right-handed batters, often at what seems to be the last moment. They whale at it and often come up with nothing. And Wells’ fastball, thrown from the right arm slot, tails away from a left-handed batter. They too wave to no avail.
On Monday, June 1, Wells was right much to the chagrin of the Pine Bluff Simmons First National Bank Senior American Legion team.
Wells took a no-hitter into the fifth before, with one out, giving up a lined single just beyond the reach of Black Sox shortstop Tyler Sawyer off the bat of Garrett Lee. The right-hander bounced back to get Landon Hardin to bounce into a niftily turned 4-6-3 doubleplay to end the inning and the game as the Sox run-ruled their Zone 4 rival, 9-0.[more]
In five frames, Wells fanned seven and worked around three walks.
“He was in control,” commented Sox’ manager Craig Harrison. “He’ll take a little off that slider at times but when Ben gets in trouble, it’s when his arm slot drops and the ball just kind of flattens out. We kept telling him — and I don’t know much about pitching but what I do know is, when he keeps his arm up, his ball really bites. It moves.”
The Sox improved to 2-0 in league play, 6-1 overall going into another Zone match-up at home against Little Rock Continental Express on Tuesday.
Ironically, Wells was not going to be the starter on Monday as late that afternoon.
“We were going to go with (Kaleb) Jobe,” Harrison related, “then Ben tomorrow (against Continental). I started working the lineup today and thought, well, if I throw Jobe today then he can’t catch (Tuesday) because we don’t want him catching back-to-back (after he’d pitched). So I called Ben about 2:30 and told him we were flipping and he’d throw tonight.
“He looked good,” added the manager. “Once we got a good lead, we were just laying the ball in there. Even though he was working on a no-hitter, we were just pitching it like, ‘Let’s get three outs and go to the house.'”
Hunter Mayall led the offense with a 3-for-4 night, driving in two. Brennan Bullock had a two-run double and seven Sox players hit safely.
At first, though, Pine Bluff right-hander Jesse Blackstock matched Wells, holding the Sox without a hit until the third when, with one out, Austin Benning reached on an error and Mayall singled up the middle. With two down, Tyler Sawyer came through with a solid single up the middle to put up the first run.
In the fourth, Brady Butler battled for a walk after fouling off three two-strike pitches. One of those was a foul pop that Pine Bluff catcher Nick Cox dropped to keep the at-bat alive. Justin Blankenship followed with a long drive off the wall in right-center for a double to set up Bullock. His liner over the second baseman’s head went for two bags, making it a 3-0 game.
Blackstock retired the next two but Mayall lashed an RBI double to left-center to make it 4-0.
“I liked our at-bats during the middle innings,” Harrison said. “We were disciplined at the plate. And, boy, Mayall can swing it. He’s got a good, quick bat and even with two strikes, you feel like he’s going to hit it somewhere.”
Wells, meanwhile, worked around a walk in the first. In the third, he issued a lead-off pass and, an out later, an error had two aboard. Mayall, at third, made a nice stab of a two-hopper to his left and got a force at second and, with runners at the corners, Wells fanned Cox to get out of the inning.
In the fourth, Matt Harbison walked to lead off for the Bankers but Benning made a nice snag of a hot grounder to his right, flipped to Sawyer at second who relayed to first for a doubleplay.
“Benning at second made three beautiful plays,” Harrison noted.
In the fifth, Blake Sorrey relieved Blackstock, who was actually making his first pitching appearance of the season in Pine Bluff’s fifth game. Kaleb Jobe battled for a walk to open the inning. He advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on a double to right-center by Butler, making it 5-0. With one out, Bullock drew a free pass and Trent Daniel rifled a single to left that was misplayed. Butler scored and Bullock reached third as Daniel took second.
Mason Reynolds became the Bankers’ third pitcher, coming in to face Benning. A wild pitch, however, brought Bullock home as Benning drew a walk. Jonathan Wade came in to run for Daniel and he scored when Mayall blasted one off the right-field wall. Uncertain about whether the ball might be caught, Benning got a late start toward second and started to hold there on the play before the relay to third sailed on second baseman Jared Wilson. Benning made it to third and, moments later, scored the final run of the game on a wild pitch.
In the home fifth, Wilson reached on an error to start the inning but Wells struck out Hunter Reed. Lee’s single came on the next pitch before the Sox turned their second doubleplay to end the game.
“It was a good ballgame, 9-0 is not indicative of what kind of team that Pine Bluff has over there,” Harrison commented. “They’ll beat some teams this year.”
BRYANT 9, PINE BLUFF SIMMONS 0
Black Sox Simmons First
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Mayall, 3b 4 0 3 2 Lee, cf 3 0 1 0
Garrett, cf 4 0 1 0 Hardin, lf 2 0 0 0
Sawyer, ss 3 0 1 1 Cox, c 2 0 0 0
Jobe, c 2 1 0 0 Harbison, ss 1 0 0 0
Butler, 1b 2 2 1 1 Arnold, dh-1b 2 0 0 0
Blankenship, rf 3 1 1 0 Reynolds, 1b-p 2 0 0 0
Bullock, lf 2 2 1 2 Hayes, 3b 2 0 0 0
Daniel, dh 3 0 1 1 Strahan, 2b 0 0 0 0
Wade, pr 0 1 0 0 Wilson, 2b 1 0 0 0
Benning, 2b 2 2 0 0 Reed, rf 2 0 0 0
Wells, p 0 0 0 0 Blackstock, p 0 0 0 0
Sorrey, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 25 9 9 7 Totals 17 0 1 0
BRYANT 001 35 — 9
Pine Bluff 000 00 — 0
E—Strahan, Sawyer, Cox, Hardin, Wilson. DP—Bryant 2. LOB—Bryant 6, Pine Bluff 5. 2B—Blankenship, Bullock, Mayall, Butler.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Bryant
Wells (W) 5 0 0 1 3 7
Pine Bluff
Blackstock (L) 4 4 1 6 2 3
Sorrey 0.1 4 4 2 2 0
Reynolds 0.2 1 0 1 1 1
WP—Wells, Blackstock, Reynolds 2. PB—Cox.
