Hornet bats come to life for run-rule win over Rockets
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, Ark. — As a 5’4″, 140-pound outfielder playing in the Major Leagues during the dead-ball era, before Babe Ruth revolutionized the game, William Henry Keeler compiled a .343 lifetime batting average over 19 seasons. One year, “Wee Willie” as he was nicknamed for some reason, struck out just six times in 590 at bats. He is credited with inventing the hit-and-run and was renowned for using the “Baltimore chop,” in which he hit down on the ball, creating a big hop that allowed him to leg out a hit. A Hall of Famer, Keeler was elected one of Major League Baseball’s 100 greatest players of all time.
When asked for hitting advise one day late in his illustrious career, Keeler famously remarked, “Keep a clear eye, and hit it where they ain’t.”
Successful hitting has never been described more succinctly.
On Tuesday, April 7, the Bryant Hornets took a page from old Wee Willie’s playbook to get one of their best offensive days of the season jump-started.
Coming into their 7A-Central Conference game against the Little Rock Catholic Rockets (and looking up at the Rockets in the league standings), the Hornets had suffered back-to-back losses for the first time all season. Both setbacks had been in conference play and had knocked them off the top perch and into third place, fourth in the loss column.
They needed a win.
Sophomore Caleb Milam was tabbed for his first varsity start and he worked a 1-2-3 opening frame. In the bottom of the inning, it looked like Catholic’s lefty Drew Brundick was on his way to exactly the same result. But, with two down, Hunter Mayall reached on an error. Brundick reacted by issuing walks to Kaleb Jobe and Tyler Sawyer, Bryant’s top two hitters, to load the bases for Brady Butler.
Butler and Brundick battled to a 3-2 count when Butler fought off a good pitch and, with the runners on the move, looped an opposite-field single, driving in two runs. Moments later, Brennan Bullock got enough of a two-strike pitch to bloop a single to center. Sawyer scored and the Hornets had a 3-0 lead with a pair of hits Wee Willie would’ve been proud of.
The hits evolved into line drives as the game went along and the Hornets pounded out 15 on the way to a 14-3 run-rule win over a Rockets team they’d had to scrap to beat 3-2 earlier in the season. [more]
Bryant improved to 11-5 overall and 6-3 in the 7A-Central, pulling even with Catholic for second behind only North Little Rock in the league. The Hornets host Van Buren on Thursday, April 9.
A little more Wee Willie ball helped the Hornets bust the game up in the second inning. The Rockets had responded with back-to-back doubles from Aaron Chwalinski and Stuart Levy in the top of the second, cutting the Bryant lead to 3-2. In the bottom of the inning, Justin Blankenship was hit by a pitch then Caleb Garrett and Garrett Bock placed bunts so well they both went for singles that loaded the bases with no one out. Mayall walked to force in a run but then Jobe stroked a two-run single to right and Sawyer lashed a double to make it 7-2, chasing Brundick.
Right-hander Zach Gibson relieved and got the first out. But then Bullock pulled a single down the left-field line that plated two more.
Not that the Hornets wouldn’t have been working hard anyway, but after back-to-back losses, it was, “very hard and very intense,” Blankenship stated. “Coach (Kirk Bock) has been on us pretty hard. We’ve been practicing late.
“Tonight, we had a talk upstairs and he got us focused,” added the senior outfielder. “He told us, you’ve got to be a hammer or you’re a nailer every day. Either hit somebody or you’re getting hit and we had to hit somebody today. We’ve been getting hit and we’ve got to take care of it.”
“We were just more focused,” Sawyer reiterated. “I don’t think we were really in the game as much (the last couple of games) but (Coach Bock) got us more prepared (tonight) and we had a lot of intensity starting out with. That’s what we need to do from now on.
“We adjusted our approach at the plate too,” he continued. “Don’t swing at curveballs unless you have two strikes, get the pitcher’s count up and go from there.”
“Getting back to the basics,” is how Bock described the team’s work since the 7-2 loss at Little Rock Central on Thursday, April 2. “Just hard work. We had a better approach at the plate tonight than we have the last two conference games. And we just focused up.
“The kids have been tremendous,” he added. “We worked Friday, we worked Saturday, long hours. There was no complaining. They want to get better and they want to do the right thing. Obviously, we want to do the right thing. Sometimes we make bad decisions trying to get to the right thing but we’re all on the same page. We’re heading down the same road.”
With his team leading 9-2, Milam worked around a two-out infield single and an error in the third, gave up an unearned run in the fourth then closed out the game by pitching around another error and a one-out single in the fifth striking out Chwalinski, the clean-up hitter, and getting Levy to bounce out to Mayall who was making his first start at third base. He struck out two and didn’t issue a walk as he improved to 2-1 on the season.
Offensively, the Hornets tacked on a pair of runs in the third on consecutive singles by Garrett Bock, Mayall, Jobe and Sawyer and an RBI groundout by Butler.
In the fourth, Tyler Brown beat out an infield hit and Blankenship lashed a double past Catholic shortstop Drew McMahan. Garrett singled in a run and, an out later, Mayall singled in another. Jobe’s sacrifice fly set the final score.
BRYANT 14, LITTLE ROCK CATHOLIC 3
Rockets Hornets
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Rankin, lf 2 0 0 0 Garrett, dh 4 2 2 1
Glancy, lf 0 0 0 0 Bock, cf 4 2 2 0
Williamson, ph 1 0 0 0 Mayall, 3b 3 3 2 2
Owen, 2b 3 0 1 0 Jobe, c 2 0 2 4
McMahan, ss 3 0 1 0 Wade, cr 0 2 0 0
Levy, 3b 3 1 1 1 Sawyer, ss 2 2 2 1
Naeyaert 2 1 1 0 Butler, 1b 3 0 1 3
Shelton, rf 2 0 0 1 Bullock, lf 3 0 2 3
Montez, 1b 2 0 1 1 Brown, 2b 3 1 1 0
Rougeau, cf 2 0 0 0 Blankenship, rf 2 2 1 0
Brundick, p 0 0 0 0 Milam, p 0 0 0 0
Gibson, p 0 0 0 0
Gasaway, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 23 3 6 3 Totals 27 14 15 14
LR Catholic 020 10 — 3
BRYANT 362 3x — 14
E—Levy, Rankin, Brown 2, Jobe. LOB—LR Catholic 5, Bryant 6. 2B—Chwalinski, Levy, Sawyer, Blankenship. SB—Mayall. SF—Jobe.
ip r er h bb so
LR Catholic
Brundick (L) 1 9 6 6 2 1
Gibson 2 2 2 5 0 1
Gasaway 1 3 3 4 1 1
Bryant
Milam (W, 2-1) 5 3 2 6 0 2
Brundick faced six batters in the second.
HPB—Blankenship (by Brundick). WP—Gasaway. PB—Jobe.
