Minton’s effort leads Bryant to first league win
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).
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
Like most pitchers, Daniel Minton would’ve probably wanted to take about his hitting after Tuesday night’s AAAAA-Central Conference game against the Little Rock Central Tigers at Bryant High School Field.
But Minton’s pitching was superb as he picked up his second win of the season and the Hornets’ first win in the league with six innings of four-hit pitching in a 6-2 victory.
In his longest stint of the season, Minton was allowed to start the seventh but issued a lead-off walk and head coach Terry Harper went to get him with a pat on the back. Minton fanned six and his only other two walks in the game wound up being Central’s two scores.
Oh, and the hitting: Minton, Justin Wells and Andrew Norman each had two hits to lead the Hornets. Wells drove in a pair of runs with one of his two doubles.
The win improved the Hornets to 5-1 on the season, 1-1 in conference play going into a non-league game on Thursday against Watson Chapel and another league contest at home on Friday versus Little Rock Parkview.
Tuesday’s game, originally scheduled as a home game for Central, was played at Bryant because the Tigers didn’t have a home field to play on.
Minton allowed only a scratch infield hit with two out in the second over the first three innings while the Hornets piled up a 6-0 lead. He gave up another single in the fourth but worked around that.
In the sixth, he walked a pair and, with two out, Andrew Fuller singled to right center to drive both home. Fuller swiped second to get into scoring position, but Minton struck out Phillip Wood to end the threat.
After working around a one-out single in the sixth and walking the first man in the seventh, Minton gave way to B.J. Wood who closed out the victory with the help of some sparkling defense from Wells at short and Nick Dorsey at third.
In fact, the Bryant defense was a impeccable, errorless in the game.
Bryant claimed a 3-0 lead in the first. Korey Hunter walked and B.J. Wood reached on an error with one out. Norman then singled in Hunter. Wood scored on Scott Peeler’s groundout to second and Minton’s two-out base-knock plated Norman.
In the second, Wells drilled a lead-off double. After Todd Bryan sacrificed him to third, he dashed home on A.J. Nixon’s bouncer to short, making it 4-0.
The third inning began with singles by Norman and Peeler. Minton drew a walk to load the bags. With one out, Wells delivered a two-run, two-bagger to the gap in right-center.
After a pitching change for Central, the Hornets put a pair of runners aboard in the fourth but Tigers’ lefty Cory Lambert allowed little else.
