By Rob Patrick
A year ago on this date, the Bryant Hornets baseball team was trying to regroup after suffering its[more] sixth straight 7A-Central Conference loss, a 3-1 setback at home to the Little Rock Central Tigers.
A State championship seemed to be a remote proposition, a fading dream. They just needed a win.
Little did they know what lie ahead.
The Hornets snapped that skid with a win over Little Rock Catholic at Lamar Porter Field on April 24 and did a 360. They proceeded to win nine in a row topped off by a 12-0 win over league-rival Van Buren in the Class 7A championship game at Baum Stadium.
Today, Bryant and Van Buren’s Pointers will meet again for the first time since that title game with a league doubleheader (though the two teams will be headed to different State tournaments this year. Van Buren, as was the case in other sports this season, will compete at Class 6A in the post-season).
A season ago, the 7A-Central ended in a five-way tie for first place after Bryant’s late-season charge. The league was in a jumble all the way.
That could happen again but, at this point, the Hornets have an edge on the rest of the conference with a 6-2 mark, two games up in the loss column on Catholic (6-4), Russellville (5-4 but also headed to the 6A State), Conway (4-4) and Central (4-4). North Little Rock, Cabot and Van Buren are each three back in the loss column with five losses each.
In a new format this year, instead of playing home-and-home, the 7A/6A-Central teams are playing league doubleheaders which has changed the dynamic some despite the fact that the conference is still a jumble going into the last three weeks of the season. Most of the doubleheaders have been splits. Bryant has two of the few sweeps along the way (over Central and North Little Rock). They’re coming off a split at Conway.
The Hornets’ pitching depth has been tested with the two pitchers that were their league-game starters at the beginning of the season, Dylan Cross and Caleb Milam, nursing injuries.
Van Buren’s top starter is right-hander Tyler Spoon, who was the winning pitcher in the Pointers’ 9-5 win over the Hornets on April 1, 2010. That was the game that started Bryant’s struggles last season.
Down the hill at the softball field, the Bryant Lady Hornets will be trying to take a little frustration out on the Lady Tigers of Central, starting at 5 p.m. They’re coming off a tough 2-1 loss to rival North Little Rock in a battle for first place in the conference. Earlier in the season, the Lady Hornets drubbed the struggling Central team, 14-0 at Interstate Park.
BRYANT HORNETS
Unofficial 2011 stats through 20 games
Hitting
Name ab r h bi d t hr bb* so sb avg
Tyler Green 4 10 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 1.000
Daniel Richards 3 1 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000
Marcus Wilson 3 14 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 4 1.000
Ashton Green 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 .500
Tryce Schalchlin 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500
Lucas Castleberry 25 9 11 8 1 1 0 5 6 1 .440
Landon Pickett 61 19 26 24 6 0 2 12 10 1 .426
Jordan Taylor 45 11 18 13 5 0 0 21 6 0 .400
Tyler Brown 51 15 20 12 4 0 0 11 6 1 .392
Evan Jobe 52 14 19 6 3 0 0 10 5 4 .365
Dylan Cross 53 4 19 21 3 0 1 10 9 0 .358
Josh Pultro 53 11 17 14 3 0 0 12 13 3 .321
Chris Joiner 64 15 20 16 3 0 2 10 7 2 .313
Tyler Nelson 51 23 15 13 4 0 0 28 6 4 .294
Hayden Lessenberry 38 0 10 14 2 0 0 15 4 0 .263
Hayden Daniel 11 14 2 2 0 0 0 2 2 6 .182
Ozzie Hurt 9 3 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 .111
Zach Graddy 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000
Wesley Akers 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Bradon Jones 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 —–
Trent Rivers 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 —–
Totals 530 169 190 154 36 1 5 138 76 30 .358
Pitching
Name w-l ip r er h bb* so era
Tryce Schalchlin 0-0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0.00
Caleb Milam 5-2 38 14 13 35 9 37 2.39
Dylan Cross 4-0 26.2 15 10 18 19 24 2.63
Landon Pickett 2-0 18.2 10 8 12 8 19 3.00
Jordan Taylor 3-1 29.2 20 20 33 12 34 4.72
Tyler Nelson 1-0 9.2 10 8 17 4 5 5.79
Wesley Akers 1-1 5.2 7 5 8 1 2 6.18
Totals 16-4 129.1 77 64 125 53 121 3.46
