LITTLE ROCK — The Bryant Hornets B team (mostly freshmen) swept another doubleheader on Tuesday, March 9, improving to 9-0 on the season. The Hornets won their first game 14-4 in six innings over the Little Rock Central Tigers B team, then took the nightcap 3-1 in five frames.

By Rob Patrick

The Bryant Hornets got a pretty good idea they weren’t playing the same Pine Bluff Zebras team they’d faced in their season-opening benefit game right off the bat.

In fact, it was right off the bat of lead-off man Daryl Broody who launched a 2-2 delivery from Bryant starter Blake Davidson over the fence in dead center. Granted the wind was blowing out — a rare thing at Bryant High School field — but with one swing the Zebras had matched their total from the earlier meeting.

But the Hornets got the bats going too, hammering out 15 hits and winning in the bottom of the sixth by run-rule when Brady Butler sent a screaming liner down the line in left for a two-run blast, making it 13-2.

The Bryant Hornets B team won three games to capture the championship of a junior varsity round-robin tournament held at Bauxite on Saturday afternoon.

The Hornets defeated Bauxite’s JV, 15-1, then knocked off the JV team for Little Rock Mills, 10-0, before meeting Benton in the final and winning 8-4.

It was a good day for the Garretts at Bryant High School Field Saturday.

Caleb Garrett belted a 3-run inside-the-park home run and a triple while Garrett Bock added two hits including a two-run double and scored twice in Bryant’s 11-1 romp over the Texarkana Razorbacks in five innings. Jordan Taylor also had two hits for the Hornets, driving in three runs.

Ben Wells went the distance on the mound allowing one unearned run on four hits with six strikeouts without a walk to improve to 2-0 on the season.

By Rob Patrick

It’s not something you want to have to depend on every game, but it’s nice to know you can do it.

For the second game in a row, the Bryant Hornets fell behind early, rallied to tie then won in extra innings as they edged the Lake Hamilton Wolves, 5-4. Jordan Taylor laced a liner through the drawn-in infield to drive in the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth Friday night.

The win came on the heels of a nine-inning victory at Watson Chapel earlier in the week.

The Bryant Hornets B team swept a twinbill from the White Hall Bulldogs B team on Thursday night and, unlike their previous pair of victories at Pine Bluff earlier in the week, they really had to work hard to get these.

Bryant won the opener 8-1 and the nightcap 6-5.

PINE BLUFF — Sophomore Dylan Cross threw three perfect innings, striking out eight of the nine batters he faced in a scheduled doubleheader between the Bryant Hornets B team and the Pine Bluff Zebras B team on Tuesday, March 2. Hayden Daniel, Hayden Lessenberry, Tyler Nelson and Daniel Richards led the offense with multiple hits in a 21-0 win.

By Rob Patrick

PINE BLUFF — Beating Pine Bluff 20-1 in a season-opening benefit game had its, um, benefits but the Bryant Hornets undoubtedly got much more out of Tuesday’s come-from-behind 6-5 win in extra innings over the Watson Chapel Wildcats was far more valuable.

The Hornets trailed 5-2 after five innings but rallied for a run in the sixth and two in the seventh to send it to extra frames. In the ninth, Brennan Bullock’s hustle helped produce what proved to be the decisive run. First, Bullock beat out a grounder in the hole at short for an infield hit with one out. He then swiped second before Jordan Taylor flew out to left. And, with two down, Bullock was running all the way when Brady Butler hit a high pop into the wind on the infield. When Watson Chapel’s third baseman Ryan Bowlin dropped the ball, Bullock was well on his way to the plate.

And senior right-hander Ben Wells, who had come in to relieve starter Blake Davidson in the fifth, finished a shutout stint of 4 1/3 innings to nail down the victory.

By Rob Patrick

Chances are, they’re not all going to be this easy.

But, hey, who knows?

The Bryant Hornets banged out 14 hits to take advantage of nine errors and 10 walks in a 20-1 romp over the Pine Bluff Zebras in a pre-season benefit scrimmage at Bryant High School Field on Thursday night.

A quartet of pitchers — Blake Davidson, Caleb Milam, Jordan Taylor and Ben Wells — limited the Z’s to four hits — three of them by the Zebras’ hit machine Claude Johnson — while issuing just two walks and fanning 13.

In the field, the Hornets committed just one error despite playing so many players. And, at the plate, 19 different players got to the plate and 18 of them reached base at least once. Lucas Castleberry and Chris Joiner each had two hits.

By Rob Patrick

Saying that his team is further along at this point than it was last year, Bryant head baseball coach Kirk Bock sends his defending 7A-Central Conference champion Hornets to the field for a benefit game against the Pine Bluff Zebras on Thursday, Feb. 25, at 5 p.m.

The Hornets, coming off a 22-8 season that surprised some, welcome back all but three starters from last year’s team. Of course, those three starters — Tyler Sawyer, Kaleb Jobe and Justin Blankenship — all signed to play college ball. They were the team’s top three in runs batted in and included the team leader in wins on the mound (Sawyer) and saves (Jobe).

“Those were three key people,” Bock allowed, “but we’ve got more depth on the mound and, this year, we actually have people competing for positions in the infield. And they’re competing hard and that’s good. So, we’re going to have some choices where last year, we were limited a little bit. It’s going to be fun.”