Hornets’ miscues sting vs. Rockets

LR CATHOLIC 5, BRYANT 2

Little Rock Catholic capitalized on what Bryant was giving the Rockets on Tuesday.

The Rockets cashed in on a rash of mistakes by the Hornets and got a strong effort on the mound from Reece McWilliams to defeat the Hornets 5-2 in a 6A-Central Conference clash at Lamar Porter Field.

“[Bryant] is without question one of the top competitive teams in the state of Arkansas,” Catholic Coach Bryan Jones said. “You know exactly what you’re going to get from those guys, which is competition from the first pitch, and it doesn’t stop until the end. But they gave us a little bit there late, and fortunately we took a little more than they wanted to give.

“We had some good at-bats, too. We preach that all year, team at-bats, team at-bats, and I thought the guys did a good job of sticking with it.”

The fifth inning was the difference-maker for Catholic (11-12, 5-4), which pushed across four runs on just one hit. In fact, that leadoff single from junior Cooper McDaniel was the only hit for the Rockets over the entire seven innings. Bryant committed 2 errors, threw 2 wild pitches and hit 2 batters in the game, and Catholic took advantage of almost every miscue.

McWilliams, a senior righthander, gave up four hits over the first four innings before he found his groove. He retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced, with the only hiccup coming when Bryant senior Garrett Wilson reached on an error in the top of the seventh, but McWilliams induced backto-back outs to finish off the complete-game victory.

“Just a fantastic effort from him,” Jones said of McWilliams, who had six strikeouts. “He just went in there and did exactly what his job was, which was taking ownership of that game. He’s found himself not being able to get in a groove as the year has progressed. But that was the first time we’ve seen him not just settle in but really get better as the game went on.

“In the sixth and the seventh, you weren’t going to take the ball from him. He had that look in his eye, and coming down the homestretch, we’ll take those kinds of performances.”

Bryant (17-2, 8-1), which had beaten Catholic 8-5 on March 18 and was riding an 11-game winning streak, jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when junior Connor Martin scored on a sacrifice from classmate Turner Seelinger. The Hornets pushed across another run in the top of the fourth after senior Austin Ledbetter raced home on a fielder’s choice.

That would be all the run support the Hornets would give Seelinger, who pitched 31/3 innings in Bryant’s earlier victory over Catholic and was in control of the rematch until the fifth.

Catholic sent seven batters to the plate in the inning, with McDaniel giving the Rockets their initial run after scoring on senior Brady Claypool’s bases-loaded walk. McWilliams had a sacrifice bunt in the frame, and junior Luke George had a sacrifice fly before Claypool scored on an error to give Catholic a 4-2 lead.

Senior Jackson Daniel would tack on the Rockets’ final run when he scored on a wild pitch from Bryant reliever Will Hathcote in the bottom of the sixth.

“We saw [Seelinger] a month ago, and he was really on [Tuesday],” Jones said. “He looked fantastic from the get-go, throwing the ball a lot harder, and our hitters were not comfortable in the box. But they stayed with it.

“We were patient, and we kept having some competitive at-bats to get into his pitch count a little bit. We just kept plugging along, and eventually was able to get this win.”