By Rob Patrick
BRYANT, Ark. — The defending Class 2A State champion Woodlawn Bears, one of the favorites to win the title again in 2009, brought a gaudy 26-1 record to Bryant on Friday, April 17. The hastily scheduled date was intended to provide the Bears a challenge and a tune-up before they played in the championship of their District Tournament on Tuesday, April 21.
They'd won the regular-season league title and received a bye to the title game and the bid to Regionals that go with that at the 2A level. So, while the rest of their league was battling it out over the weekend, the Bears took on the Class 7A Hornets.
Initially, they were going to play one varsity game, according to Bryant head coach Kirk Bock. Then, it was going to be a varsity doubleheader, then a varsity and a junior varsity game. Bock prepared to play his varsity in the first game and his JV in the second but Woodlawn only brought their 13-player varsity.
The Bears left Bryant 26-3.
Yes, not only did the Bryant varsity knock them off, so did the JV team. In the first game, Tyler Sawyer tossed a one-hitter, striking out 10 as the Hornets prevailed 5-1. In the second, Landon Pickett and Ben Wells combined to hold the Bears to three hits in a 4-2 victory.[more]
Woodlawn's only other loss this season was a time-limited 2-1 setback to Warren.
The Hornets improved to 17-6 on the season with another non-conference game (and a real JV game) scheduled for Saturday at Sheridan, weather-permitting. They host Watson Chapel on Monday before returning to league play on Tuesday.
In Friday's opener, Sawyer out-dueled the combination of Woodlawn aces Bradley Wallace and Tayler Walker. He retired the first six in the game before issuing his only two walks of the contest in the third. Trae Norton, who led off the inning with a walk, was picked off second, however. With two out, Spencer Robinson drew the second pass and, three pitches later, Walker cracked a double to left center.
Walker, a Southern Arkansas University signee, has hit 13 home runs this season and his double might've been the 14th if it had been at a less expansive park.
Bryant's lead was 3-1 after the RBI double but, after that, Sawyer set down 10 in a row, seven of eight on strikes over one stretch. The skein was interrupted by an error that allowed Alex Donaldson to reach base to start the top of the seventh. But Sawyer made a nice play on a swinging bunt off the bat of Nathan Edwards then struck out Wallace for the third time and got Clint Fawcett for the final out on a dribbler in front of the plate that catcher B.J. Ellis pounced on and threw to first.
Walker's double was not just the only hit, it was one of only three balls hit by the Bears that got to the outfield. Walker flied to left in the first and Jordan Spakes flew to left in the sixth.
Wallace and Walker had their moments on the mound as well. Wallace walked Caleb Garrett and Garrett Bock to start the bottom of the first. Hunter Mayall got a sacrifice bunt down and reached safely when Doug Earnest's throw from third base wasn't handled cleanly by Nathan Edwards at first. With the bases loaded and one out, Sawyer hit a grounder to second that figured to drive in the run if Woodlawn didn't turn it into a doubleplay. As it turned out, however, the ball was misplayed and two scored.
Wallace worked around a single by Garrett in the second. In the third, Kaleb Jobe singled to extend his hitting streak to 11. Sawyer reached on another error then walks to Butler and Bullock forced in a run.
Walker took over in the fourth after the Bears got their run. With one out, Bock singled to right and reached second when the ball was misplayed in the outfield. He took third on a wild pitch as Mayall walked. After Mayall swiped second, Jobe delivered a run with a sacrifice fly then Sawyer singled in Mayall to make it 5-1.
In the second game, Pickett worked the first three innings and Wells finished up with two scoreless frames in the five-inning contest.
Bryant took a 1-0 lead in the opening inning. Garrett walked and stole second and, on a clutch two-out single by Lucas Castleberry, raced home.
Woodlawn tied it in the top of the second when Wallace singled, stole second, took third on a wild pitch as Norton drew a one-out walk then scored on a bunt single by Tyler Reynolds.
Bryant answered with three in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for good. Jonathan Wade reached on a throwing error, making his way to second. Austin Queck sacrificed him to third and he scored when Dylan Cross' grounder to short was booted. Brodie Nixon, the courtesy runner for Cross, swiped second and scored on a single by Garrett. In turn, Garrett stole second. Chris Joiner followed with a double that chased Garrett around to make it 4-1.
Woodlawn picked up its second run in the third when Donaldson doubled, took third on a groundout by Edwards and scored on a single by Wallace.
But that was the Bears' last hit of the evening as Wells picked up a save.
BRYANT 5, WOODLAWN 1
Bears Hornets
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Walker, cf-p 3 0 1 1 Garrett, cf 3 1 1 0
Spakes, ss 3 0 0 0 Bock, dh 3 2 2 0
Donaldson, c 3 0 0 0 Joiner, pr 0 0 0 0
Meyer, cr 0 0 0 0 Mayall, 3b 2 1 0 0
Edwards, 1b 3 0 0 0 Jobe, ss 2 1 1 1
Wallace, p-3b 3 0 0 0 Sawyer, p 4 0 1 2
Fawcett, dh-cf 3 0 0 0 Wade, cr 0 0 0 0
Norton, rf 1 0 0 0 Butler, 1b 2 0 0 0
Reynolds, 2b 2 0 0 0 Bullock, lf 2 0 0 1
Robinson, lf 1 1 0 0 Brown, 2b 3 0 0 0
Earnest, 3b 0 0 0 0 Blankenship, rf 3 0 0 0
Ellis, c 0 0 0 0
Totals 22 1 1 1 Totals 24 5 5 4
Woodlawn 001 000 0 — 1
BRYANT 201 200 x — 5
E—Edwards 2, Reynolds, Norton, Fawcett, Butler. LOB—Woodlawn 2, Bryant 9. 2B—Walker. SB—Garrett 2, Mayall, Wade. S—Mayall. SF—Jobe.
ip er r h bb so
Woodlawn
Wallace (L) 3 3 0 2 4 5
Walker 3 2 1 3 2 2
Bryant
Sawyer (W, 5-2) 7 1 1 1 2 10
WP—Walker 2.
