Bison hold off Hornets, improve to 8-3

The Carlisle Bison rally up before an inning during their win over Hazen on Friday. (Photos by Mark Buffalo)

By Mark Buffalo

Staff Writer

@markbuffalo

Ian Seidenschwarz makes contact with a pitch
against Hazen. 

CARLISLE — The Carlisle Bison continued their early-season roll with a 9-5 win over the Hazen Hornets on Friday at Rockefeller Park.

The Bison aren now 8-3 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Carlisle led 5-0 after three innings. Hazen scored twice in the top of the fourth to cut it to 5-2. The Bison plated a run in the bottom of the frame to lead 6-2. However, the Hornets would not go away, scoring once in the fifth and twice in the sixth to make the score 6-5.

The Bison scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth push the lead back to four at 9-5. 

“I wasn’t surprised at jumping out to a big lead,” first-year Carlisle coach Steven Tew said. “Yesterday at practice, it was probably the best we’ve swung the bat all year. That was really encouraging coming off the last two games where I thought we didn’t swing the bat that well. 

“We knew we were facing one of the top guys in our conference in Jacob Weems. He’s had great numbers. Everything that I heard is that he’s a two strikeout an inning pitcher. It was going to be hard for us.”

Ben Orton, Blake White and Kamryn Taylor each scored two runs. Also scoring were Coby Brown, Gauge Shaw and Jasean Harper.

Brown and White led Carlisle with three hits each. Orton and Eli Moody had two hits each. 

Also getting a  hit was Creed Carter. 

Paxton Hitchings pitched the first three innings. He allowed no hits but two runs while striking out give. White got a save, pitching the final 1 2/3 innings, He struck out three. Also pitching were Noah Seidenschwarz and Brown. 

“Paxton gave us three solid innings and I kinda pushed him for a fourth,” Tew said. “He got into a little bit of trouble. Noah came in and pitched really well. Coby struggled some. He didn’t have his best stuff but he got out there and competed. 

“Then we just got to Blake. We knew that if we had the lead and we were getting late in the game that we were going straight to Blake. He was able to come in and get five big outs for us.”

A year ago, the Bison were 12-11 but had turmoil because of a midseason coaching change, going from Phil Bernhardt to Ryan Johnson, son of former Arkansas Razorbacks pitching coach Wes Johnson. 

Carlisle made it to the regional under Johnson and was close to advancing to the state tournament. 

Tew is pleased with the progress his team is making in his first season as the head Bison. 

“Next week, we’re playing five out of the first six days,” he said. “We’ll get to see a lot of baseball and get a lot of at bats. We’re definitely happy with where we’re at right now. We just have to keep it going and finish.”

Carlisle also bet Abundant Life 12-10 last week. 

White and Carter each scored three runs. Orton scored twice. Also scoring runs were Ian Seidenschwarz, Hitchings, Taylor and Harper. 

The Bison beat Bigelow 6-3 in a conference game Monday. 

Bigelow led 2-0 after one inning. The Bison plated three runs in the both the third and fourth innings to lead 6-2. The Panthers scored once in the top of the seventh. 

Brown and Moody each scored one run. Also scoring were Carter and Taylor. 

White got the win, pitching six innings. He struck out 13.