BRYANT DEFEATS SOUTHSIDE IN FIRST GAME OF 6A-CENTRAL TWINBILL

Following two wins to start 6A-Central play, the Southside Mavericks then set their sights on one of the conference’s elite teams in Bryant. The Hornets, however, diffused the Mavericks’ momentum with a 5-1 win in the opening game of a doubleheader Thursday at Forsgren Field. The second game was played later on Thursday. “They’re a good club,” Southside coach Dale Harpenau said. “Bryant is fundamentally sound and they do a good job, they pitched it well (Thursday) and I thought (Southside pitcher) Landen (Chaffin) threw the ball extremely well for us, he gave us an opportunity to win the ballgame and that’s all we can ask out of our starters and he was able to do that. “We’ve just got to be able to figure out a way to be able to put a couple of hits together at one time.” Things started well for the Mavericks (7-7, 2-1) early on. In the bottom of the first, Southside took a 1-0 lead on a two-out RBI single to center from Braiden Partin, scoring Colton McBride. But Bryant (16-2, 2-0) was able to go in front, 2-1, on a pair of sacrifice flies in the second and fourth innings. The Hornets then broke things open in the top of the sixth, when Peyton Dillon hit a one-out solo home run to left, making it 3-1. Bryant added a pair of runs in the seventh for a four-run advantage. Southside got two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but Bryant pitcher Will McEntire finished off a complete game with a strikeout to end it. The Mavericks also committed five errors in the game. “We kicked it around a little bit uncharacteristically. ... The thing about it is those errors didn’t really cost us runs, but what it did cost us is Landen not being able to finish the ballgame because the pitch count ran up,” Harpenau said. “Again, we haven’t been that team this year. We’ve been pretty solid defensively this year and to see us come out and kick a few balls early, even though it didn’t hurt us on the scoreboard as far as the score’s concerned, it did affect Landen as far as his ability to finish.” Chaffin threw 97 pitches over six innings. He gave up three runs, two of them earned, on eight hits while walking one and striking out two. McEntire allowed the one earned run in the first before settling in the rest of the way. He gave up seven hits and finished with nine strikeouts on a total of 94 pitches. Dillon was 2-for-2 and drove in three runs, including his sixth-inning homer. He also had sacrifice flies in the second and the seventh as Bryant recorded 10 hits. Jake Wright and Gage Stark also went 2-for-4 for the Hornets, with Stark hitting an RBI double in the seventh to make it 4-1. Both McBride and Partin went 2-for-3 for the Mavericks. “One game obviously doesn’t define us, it doesn’t define a season,” Harpenau said. “There’s still a long way to go in this thing, and after seeing Bryant, I think we’re not that far behind them right now as far as being able to play with them.”

BRYANT DEFEATS SOUTHSIDE IN FIRST GAME OF 6A-CENTRAL TWINBILL

BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 3/29/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Mitchell