COMEBACK COMPLETE
Bryant battles back, cuts down Cabot for 6A title
CONWAY – Bryant Coach Lisa Dreher has talked all tournament about her Lady Hornets showing grit and fighting to the end of each game. Playing some very close contests to reach the 6A State Tournament title game Thursday at the University of Central Arkansas’ Farris Field in Conway, the Central No. 2 seed Lady Hornets again fought until the very end.
Down 5-3 to league foe and Central No. 1 seed
Cabot Lady Panthers, beating Bryant twice in the conference season, going into the final inning in the championship game, the Lady Hornets would tie it up on key RBI hits before senior Macy Hoskins put Bryant ahead for good. Hoskins unloaded on a pitch for a 3-run home run to put the Lady Hornets up 8-5 and junior Kadence Armstrong held Cabot down in the bottom of the seventh to seal it for Bryant’s first state championship since 2012, the last of three straight state titles.
“The fight in these kids, I’ve never had a team like this, ever,” Bryant Coach Lisa Dreher said. “I knew they weren’t going to give up. I knew they were going to go up there and give 100 percent, and not a one of them thought we were going to lose that game when it was 5-3.
“I know we had some doubt, everywhere, I felt it, but those girls didn’t doubt and that’s what mattered.”
Hoskins earned MVP honors for her timely home run, with Armstrong earning the win in the circle with two hitless and scoreless innings of relief, striking out two in front of an overflow crowd which had even more fans watching from the outfield berm. Official attendance was 1,085 with Farris Field capacity at 1,000.
“You see how much our community is behind us,” Dreher said. “They didn’t give up and they were chanting Macy’s name before she even hit that ball. They believe in us and talk to us every day about our games and what happens and everything. Just the support in Bryant is something you just can’t get much other places.
With Bryant leading 3-2, Cabot (24-3), sweeping the Central conference, scored three runs in the bottom of of the fifth inning and senior pitcher Akayla Barnard pitched a scoreless sixth, including inducing a fly out from Bryant senior recordbreaker Abby Gentry for the last out of the inning.
Now down 5-3 with their best hitter making the last out in the previous frame, it did not look good for the Lady Hornets (23-7) going into the seventh, especially when Armstrong grounded out to lead off the inning.
But, junior Aly White singled up the middle, and freshman Jacklyn Price courtesy ran for her. Freshman Payton Stueart followed with a single to left field before sophomore Kloie Lovell plated Price with a single to center for the 5-4 deficit, with Lovell going to second on the throw home. Junior Kallee Nichols laid down a squeeze bunt, but Stueart was out at home.
Now down one and to their final out with runners on the corners, junior Leah Hicks came through with an RBI single to right field on
a 2-2 count to tie things at 5-all. It was then Hoskins’ turn. Fighting off some good pitches from Barnard to work a full count, Hoskins hammered the ball over the left-field fence for the 3-run homer.
“Before that last inning they told me they didn’t want me in the huddle,” Dreher explained. “I said, ‘OK,’ so I left the huddle and have no idea what they said. Apparently it was the right recipe for this game.”
In the bottom of the seventh, Armstrong hit the first batter she faced, but then induced two fly outs before
striking out Allee Autry to end it.
It was Bryant’s sixth straight win to end the season as the Lady Hornets had to fight to make it to the title game, edging Har-ber 3-2 in the quarterfinals at Lady Hornet Field in Bryant before winning a 6-4 decision over the defending champion Bentonville Lady Tigers in extra innings. It also looked as if Cabot was going to edge Bryant again Thursday after the Lady Panthers downed the Lady Hornets in two close Central contests during the season, 6-4 in their first and 9-8 in the second. Bryant would also beat rival Benton 2-0 in the fourth game of this season, snapping its rival’s 67-game win streak.
It was a scoreless game after one inning Thursday as Barnard struck out the first two Lady Hornets she faced, including Gentry’s first strikeout of the season, before White reached on a two-out single. A fly out followed for Cabot to get out of the first unscathed.
The starter White set the Lady Panthers down in order in the bottom of the inning before the Lady Hornets used some small ball to notch their first run in the top of the second. Lovell singled and went to second on Nichols’ sacrifice bunt. Lovell stole third and Hicks reached safely at first on a fielder’s choice. Hoskins laid down a squeeze bunt to plate Lovell on a close play and she was called safe for the 1-0 Bryant lead.
Cabot got that run back in the bottom of the second when Graci Hock reached on a one-out single and went to second on a wild pitch before White struck out the next batter for the second out. Jarah Potter knocked in Hock with a single to center for the 1-1 ball game. White gave up a single and an error kept the inning alive, and with the bases loaded, White induced a pop out to sophomore Makenleigh “Specs” Easterwood to limit the damage.
After Barnard pitched a 1-2-3 third, she gave Cabot the lead with a one-out solo home run off of senior relief pitcher Emily Miller for the 2-1 advantage, but after a single and fly out, the catcher Gentry picked off a Lady
Panther at first to get out of the inning.
Bryant retook the lead in the fourth. Hicks reached on a one-out single and scored from first two batters later when senior Emma Bonvillain doubled her in for the 2-2 game. Easterwood courtesy ran for Bonvillain and scored on Gentry’s single to center for the 3-2 lead.
Miller got in a little trouble in the bottom of the fourth with a single and two-out walk, but notched a strikeout to get out of the inning. Barnard gave up a single to Stueart and Lovell reached on an error in the fifth, but the Cabot pitcher got out of it with a fly out and strikeout.
It was the bottom of the fifth when it looked as if the Lady Panthers took control. Miller induced a fly out to start, but a walk and error put runners on second and third before Hock tied things at 3-3 with an RBI single to center. Emma Scales singled in another for the one-run lead, and after White, back in the circle, induced a fly out, Alyssa Duncan singled in another with two outs for the 5-3 advantage after five.
The Lady Hornets went in order in the sixth and White gave up a single and another error put two runners on, but Armstrong came in to shut things down before Bryant came back in the seventh.
Both teams had 11 hits with Hicks (two runs, RBI), Lovell (two runs, RBI), White and Stueart were all
2 for 4, with Hoskins lone hit a 3-run home run, plating another on a squeeze bunt for four RBIS. Gentry went 1 for 3 with an RBI with Bonvillain 1 for 4 with an RBI. The Lady Hornets also set the team home run record with 47 total. Gentry led the way with 14, followed by White, Nichols and Hoskins, after her shot in the championship, adding seven apiece. Hicks had five dingers and Stueart had three.
“That blows the Bryant home run record out of the water,” Dreher said of the 47 homers. “These girls just hit the ball. Macy is my 8-hole hitter. Emma Bonvillain came up big, she’s the 9-hole. Just 1 through 9, we needed everybody. Honestly, I’ve never had a team do this.”
After Armstrong’s two scoreless frames, White gave up a run on five hits without a walk, striking out two in 2.2 innings. Miller gave up four runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks, striking out one in 2.1 innings.
Barnard took the loss for Cabot in a complete game, giving up eight runs (all earned) on 11 hits and a walk, striking out nine in seven innings. Hock, Scales and Duncan all had two hits and an RBI apiece, with Barnard and Potter adding a hit and RBI each. Lauren Reilly and Emily Whitman added a hit apiece.
The state championship was especially nice for Dreher as she was a freshman
... The fight in these kids,
I’ve never had a team like this, ever. I knew they weren’t going to give up. I knew they were going to go up there and give 100 percent, and not one of them thought we were going to lose that game when it was 5-3.”
Lisa Dreher Bryant softball coach
for UCA in its inaugural season in 1996.
“It means way more than you can imagine,” Dreher said of the victory at UCA. “This is where I played and I wanted it to come full circle. I texted my old coach (Natalie Shock), who’s assistant AD here now, and I told her it would mean so much for everything to come full circle for them to win this.”