March 26 in Bryant athletic history: 2010

Hornets finish third at Classic with win over Fort Walton Beach team

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).

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla.  — The Bryant Hornets wrapped up a 3-1 trip to the Northwest Florida Powerade Classic, winning the third-place game, 5-2, over the Choctawhatchee Indians of Fort Walton Beach on Friday.

Sophomore right-hander Jordan Taylor went the distance on the mound, allowing five hits, no walks and striking out two. Four of the Indians’ hits came in a two-run fifth that cut into Bryant’s 5-0 lead. Bryant played errorless defense behind him. The only other hit was a third-inning single.[more]

Offensively, Taylor had two doubles and Lucas Castleberry two singles to lead the eight-hit attack.

Now 14-1 on the season, the Hornets were set to return to Bryant on Saturday. They’ll host 7A-Central Conference rival Little Rock Catholic on Tuesday.

“Jordan did great, just a tremendous effort,” said Hornets coach Kirk Bock. “He only struck out two so that means we recorded all those outs. The defense played flawlessly. It was just another good effort, another good performance defensively for us. Castleberry made a couple of good plays at short and (Tyler) Brown made a couple of good plays at third.

“It’s been a great week,” added the coach. “The kids have been tremendous. The least of our worries has been them staying up late to play ping pong. On the field, we played some good competition and we played well. We don’t ever hit it quite as well as we’d like to but we did a good job.”

Bryant took a 4-0 lead in the second. Brennan Bullock instigated the uprising with a single and Taylor doubled him to third. Butler grounded to second allowing Bullock to score. Castleberry singled in run to make it 2-0. After Castleberry stole second, Brown walked. Both runners moved up on a grounder to second, setting the table for Chris Joiner’s two-run double.

In the top of the fifth, Evan Jobe, in for Garrett Bock who was out with a tender hamstring, drew a walk. Hunter Mayall singled and Bullock walked to load the bases. When Taylor grounded into a force at third, Jobe scored to make it 5-0.

In the bottom of the inning, the Indians broke through. Luke Clark led off with their second hit of the game, a single. But Taylor got Miguel Paulino to bounce to Castleberry for a force at second. Cameron McNabb singled and so did Ben Hambleton, loading the bases. But Taylor picked off Hambleton from first for the second out.

And it appeared that the Hornets were out of the inning when Taylor picked off Paulino at third but a balk was called allowing the run to score.

“We had a little discussion,” Bock related, referring to the umpire. “Of course, I didn’t win it.”

With the inning extended, catcher Charles Sasser singled to make it 5-2 before Taylor got the final out.

That started a stretch in which Taylor retired the final seven batters to close out the win.