By Eric Herter
MORGANTOWN – This just in, James Bryner is pretty darn good at throwing a baseball.
The University High School senior threw a complete-game three-hitter on Friday, leading the Hawks to a 4-1 victory over visiting Parkersburg South.
Bryner, who recently signed to play baseball at Potomac State College, was perfect on the mound through three innings before hitting two batters in the fourth to give the Patriots their first baserunners of the game.
He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before South’s Eli Davis hit a bloop single to right field.
“Any day he’s on the mound, I could think there’s a possibility (a no-hitter) could happen,” UHS head coach Travis Renner said. “He’s got good stuff, he works hard, he had a dedicated off-season, and he’s just an all-around good baseball player and a good kid.”
With Friday’s performance, Bryner lowered his season ERA to 1.65, and his 10 strikeouts brought his season total to 63, which is 30 more than any other pitcher on the UHS staff.
In a season where UHS has struggled to a 7-15 record, Bryner has been a true bright spot for the Hawks.
“If you look at the rankings, standings, or however you want to take that, we’ve played everybody, all the teams up in the top,” Renner said. “We have been close in games. We have a bunch of one or two-run losses. We’re one or two mistakes away from our record being the opposite of what it is.”
On Friday, the Hawks made all the plays on their way to ending a four-game skid. UHS did not commit an error in the contest and had a dazzling catch in center field from Noah Templeton to go along with a sliding catch by Baret Shuba in right field that turned into a double play.
“The defense was great today,” Bryner said. “They made some hard plays and really bailed me out a couple of times. They really did their job perfectly.”
Bryner said he didn’t start thinking about a possible no-hitter until the fourth inning after he hit a couple of Parkersburg South batters. He said that the movement on all his pitches really seemed dialed in all game.
While Bryner was dealing, the UHS offense got going in the second inning as Shuba singled to right field, scoring Colson Jenkins and giving UHS a 1-0 lead. Max Cash added a solo home run in the fourth inning, and then UHS scored two more runs in the sixth when Cash stole home, and Carson Velickoff scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Shuba.
“Hopefully this is something we can build on,” Renner said. “We had timely hitting today, and we played clean defense.”
Grant Alexander went 2-for-3 for the Hawks with a double and a triple for UHS in the contest.
UHS split its pair of contests on Saturday with a 6-4 victory over Parkersburg, followed by a 15-7 defeat to Grafton.
The Hawks travel to Preston on Monday for a 5:30 p.m. contest against the Knights.
University 4, Parkersburg South 1
PSHS 000 000 1 – 1 3 1
UHS 010 102 X – 4 6 0
PSHS – McCartney 2000 Davis 2010 Fluty 3000 Walker 2110 West 3010 L. McVey 3000 J. McVey 3000 Miller 3000 Graham 2000 Totals: 22 1 3 0.
UHS – Templeton 3000 Alexander 3020 Cash 3221 Velickoff 2100 Jenkins 3110 Waldo 0000 Shuba 2012 Kinder 3000 Johnson 2000 Totals: 21 4 6 3.
2B – Alexander
3B – Alexander
HR – Cash
WP – Bryner (3-4) 7ip 3h 1r 1er 1bb 10k
LP – Linville 4ip 4h 2r 2er 1bb 4k
