Fort Smith Northside slips past Bryant

6A-CENTRAL BASEBALL FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE 4, BRYANT 3

FORT SMITH — Senior Jett Frazier sure lived up to his given first name on Thursday.

Frazier swiped three bases and scored two runs to help the Northside Grizzlies to a 4-3 win against Bryant at Hunt’s Park to begin the second half of 6A-Central play.

Northside (9-11, 3-4) had its game against Little Rock Southwest postponed earlier in the week due to the storms but ended the week with its second win over Bryant this season.

Frazier set the tables for the Grizzlies, batting leadoff and reaching base all four times. He was hit by a pitch in the first and second innings, scoring Northside’s first run of the game and walking in the fifth and sixth innings, scoring Northside’s go-ahead run in the sixth.

“That’s a game,” Northside coach Will Hankins said. “He’s 0-for-0 and a 1,000 onbase percentage and scored twice. When he’s on base, our percentage of scoring is pretty high.”

Frazier saw only four strikes all night, getting hit by a 1-1 pitch in the first inning and then an 0-2 pitch his next trip. He walked on 3-1 and 3- 0 counts. “When you bat leadoff you have to do your best for the team and get on base and see pitches,” Frazier said. “I’m fine wherever I hit as long as I get on base. I’d prefer to hit but as long as I get on base I’m fine.”

After Bryant ( 9-11, 3- 5) had tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth, Frazier led off the bottom half of the inning with a walk and stole second. Jayden Dilworth, another speedster at the top of Northside’s order, followed with another walk. The two then executed a double steal, and both scored on a sharp one-out single by lefty Logan Lundquist to the opposite field that provided the decisive runs.

“We really needed this one,” Hankins said. “It puts us back in the hunt.”

Frazier also stole second in the second inning, feeling the pressure about living up to his name.

“Yes, I do,” Frazier said. “I’ve been told my whole life that if my name’s Jett, I’d better be able to steal bags.”

Frazier batted fifth in the first meeting against Bryant and had two hits, scored a run and stole a base in the 7-2 win.

“I’ve batted mainly one and five hole this year,” Frazier said. “I’ve seen more fastballs leading off than in the five hole just mixing it up.”

McLane Moody, Landon Parnell and Jayden Duggar combined to hold Bryant to just six hits and the two runs despite the Hornets putting the leadoff hitter on base six of the seven innings.

“Our three pitchers did a phenomenal job,” Hankins said. “Moody got us two innings, Parnell got us two innings and Duggar shut the door. I couldn’t ask for anything better on the mound. When they scored runs, they said, ‘so what’ and kept going.”

Duggar earned the win, giving up a run in the seventh inning and pitching out of trouble in the fifth inning in relief and then in the seventh to close out the win.

Right fielder KyVeon Perkins provided a defensive lift for the Grizzlies when he threw a Bryant runner out at the plate to end the fifth inning right after Bryant had tied the game on a sacrifice fly by Gideon Motes.

“Defense and pitching has not been our worry all year,” Hankins said. “It’s been are we going to string hits together. When we string hits together we’re a pretty good ball club.”

Northside has not set a date for the makeup game against Southwest, and is scheduled to play a nonconference game at Morrilton on Monday before hosting Little Rock Central on Tuesday and traveling to Little Rock Catholic on Thursday in 6A- Central games next week.