Bryant tested at Shreveport event
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continue 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).
SHREVEPORT, La. — If the point of pre-conference baseball games is to prepare for your league season, the Bryant Hornets got some prime preparation last weekend at the Arkansas/Louisiana Challenge.
The Hornets took on some of the most tradition-rich baseball programs in Louisiana and, though they dropped three straight games, they came away with a victory in the finale to finish on the upswing.
On Thursday, Bryant was rudely greeted to the event by Barbe, La., suffering a 14-0 loss. But the Hornets came back on Friday with a better performance against West Monroe. A one-out, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh gave West Monroe a 6-5 win.
On Saturday, the Hornets were buried by a talented Evangel Christian Academy team, 16-3 but came back later in the day with a 15-7 win over East St. John’s.
As a result, the Hornets were set to take a 2-3 overall record into their home-and-home series with Little Rock Catholic this week. They were to play at Little Rock’s Lamar Porter Field on Tuesday then at Ashley Park in Bryant on Thursday.
Bryant 15,
East St. John’s 7
The Hornets jumped on their final opponent for nine runs in the top of the first inning. J.J. Yant, who had three hits in the game, contributed the first big blow, a two-run triple. Tad Beene, who had walked, and Billy Landers, who had reached on an error, both scored.
After a walk was issued to Michael McClellan, Josh Caldwell singled in Yant to make it 3-0.
The bases were loaded when Kris Kuykendall was hit by a pitch. A wild pitch allowed McClellan to score.
Two outs later, the sacks were jammed again as Dustin Morris drew a walk. Beene, Landers and Yant followed with consecutive singles to cap the inning off.
St. John’s took advantage of a walk with a double and a single to score twice in the bottom of the inning off of Bryant starter Anthony Rose, but the junior lefty worked around an error to keep it at that.
Bryant got one of those runs back in the top of the second. McClellan reached base on a third-strike wild pitch and, after two-out walks to Rose and Brandon Fitts, scored on another wild delivery to make it 10-2.
Rose worked a 1-2-3 second and worked around a one-out walk in the third In the fourth, an error and a single produced an unearned run for St. John’s. In the fifth, St. John’s cut two more runs off the lead thanks to a walk, a single, a wild pitch, a sacrifice fly, an infield hit and another wild pitch.
But Rose struck out two along the way to prevent any further damage.
Bryant then added to its 10-5 lead in the top of the sixth. McClellan led off with a single, took second on a balk and third on a wild pitch. An out later, he scored on a single by Kuykendall.
Rose gave way to Daniel Bennett in the sixth and East St. John’s was unable to score despite a couple of singles.
The Hornets, in turn, removed any remaining mystery about the outcome with a four-run outburst in the top of the seventh.
Morris and Beene were both hit by pitches to start the inning. Landers grounded into a force at second as Morris took third. Yant then singled in a run.
An error kept the inning going as McClellan reached. Singles by Caldwell and Kuykendall finished things off.
A pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh completed the scoring.
Evangel Christian 16,
Bryant 3
A one-out solo home run in the top of the first by Evangel’s Justin Dewett set the tone for this one. Evangel eventually scored four times in the opening frame and the Hornets never quite recovered. (Though it didn’t really turn into a rout until Evangel erupted for nine runs in the top of the seventh.)
Bryant answered Evangel’s opening salvo with a run in the bottom of the inning. Travis Lawhon drew a one-out walk, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by McClellan.
Yant, the Hornets starter on the mound, worked around a two-out walk in the second but a pair of singles by Bryant in the bottom of the second came to nothing.
In the third, Evangel’s Justin Hermes smacked a one-out solo homer to make it 5-1.
The Hornets couldn’t do much with Evangel starter Brent Rauls after that. Kuykendall managed a one-out single in the fourth but the only other baserunners were Morris, who was hit by a pitch in the fifth, and Yant, who walked in the sixth.
Meanwhile, Evangel added single runs in the fifth and sixth before the seventh-inning outburst.
The Hornets made a little noise in the bottom of the seventh against Evangel reliever Tug Halett. Jason Roberts walked, Fitts singled and a pair of wild pitches brought Roberts home. Beene walked then Fitts scored on an errant pickoff throw. Lawhon tried to keep things going with a two-out single to right but Halett got out of the inning, ending the game there.
West Monroe 6,
Bryant 5
The Hornets rallied to tie the game in the top of the seventh on a clutch two-out single by Yant that drove in Dustin Morris, who had led off the inning with a base hit.
But, in the bottom of the inning, a one-out double put the winning run on base. Bryant coach Terry Harper walked the third and fourth batters in the West Monroe lineup to load the bases and set up a force at every station but a game-winning single up the middle foiled the strategy.
The Hornets trailed 3-0 after the first inning, but came back to tie in the top of the second. A one-out error allowed Rose to get on ahead of Lawhon, who cracked a two-run homer. Beene followed with a walk. He scored on a double by Morris to tie it.
West Monroe snapped the tie with a two-run homer in the bottom of the third and it stayed 5-3 until the Bryant sixth.
McClellan drew a lead-off walk in the sixth. Pinch-runner Josh Farmer swiped second then took third on a wild pitch. An out later, he scored when Rose’s grounder to third was misplayed. A wild pitch allowed Rose to take second then Lawhon sacrificed him to third but he was stranded there.
But Bennett, on in relief of Roberts, worked around a two-out single in the bottom of the sixth to give the Hornets their chance to tie it.
Barbe 14,
Bryant 0
The Hornets were shutout without a hit in the five-inning game. The Barbe pitcher recorded strikeouts on 12 of the 15 outs in the game. He retired 14 in a row after hitting Fitts and walking Landers to open the game. An error in the bottom of the fifth ended the string, allowing Beene to reach base. Morris walked on a 3-2 pitch to keep things going but the 12th strikeout followed to end the game.
Barbe players smacked a trio of three-run homers. Two of them came in the opening inning as Barbe jumped to a 6-0 lead. Five more scored in the third and the final three-run jolt in the top of the fifth finished off the scoring.
