Rosewood grabs come-from-behind win against Spring Creek

Published in Sports on April 5, 2006 2:20 PM

• Print
• Email

Patience at the plate can be a virtue.

Rosewood drew five walks in the last inning, pushed across two runs and came from behind to defeat Carolina 1-A Conference rival Spring Creek 7-6 on Tuesday night.

After letting an early lead slip away, Eagles coach Josh Smith was not surprised his team found a new way to win.

"You can't ever doubt your team," he said. "We put ourselves in position to win and we were patient enough at the plate."

The Eagles improved to 7-4 with the win while Spring Creek fell to 0-11.

Rosewood jumped to an early two run lead and held the Gators hitless through three innings behind senior right-hander Kyle Bunn. Spring Creek's bats came alive in the fourth and fifth innings as the Gators pounded out seven hits and scored six runs and grabbed the lead and held on until the bizarre finish in the seventh.

On a cool night with a brisk southeast wind blowing from left field to right, Trey Kriger opened the game with a base hit for the Eagles. Kriger stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Bunn. Bunn scored on a fielder's choice and Rosewood led 2-0.

Timothy Rogers led off the Gator fourth with a single to right center. Josh Singleton walked and Spring Creek had runners on first and second with no outs. After Bunn got the first out on a pop up, Alex Casey scored both runners with a base hit. Kevin Prunest followed with a single and Casey ended up running home as the Eagles could not execute a run down play.

In its half of the fourth, Rosewood tied the game 3-3 on singles by Dustin Sittig and Goss Kendall. A throwing error by the Gators allowed the tying run to score. Gators starting pitcher Anthony Brogden pitched a solid five innings and kept the Rosewood hitters off balance with a curve ball that found the strike zone.

Gators leadoff hitter Michael Russell started the Spring Creek fifth with a single to right. After one out, Rogers added his second straight hit. Singleton moved the runners with another base hit and Casey followed with single giving the Gator center fielder three RBIs in two innings.

Spring Creek brought on left hander Ray Grady to replace a tiring Brogden to begin the sixth inning. Rosewood picked up one more run in the sixth to cut the Gator lead to 6-5 with two hits, including Holt Raines' RBI single.

Taylor Allen pitched the final two innings for Rosewood and shut the Gators down by striking out 5 of 6 Spring Creek hitters.

"Taylor is a sophomore and is a young player," Smith said. "We have been trying to find a place for him. We have used him some as a starter and some as a reliever. It looks like he found his home tonight."

The home half of the seventh started with Spring Creek leading by one and the Gators trying to secure their first win. Grady walked the first two Rosewood batters and Spring Creek head coach Roger May replaced with Grady with Rogers to try and shut down the Eagles. After recording a strikeout Rogers walked the next three batters and the tying and winning runs trotted across home plate for Rosewood.

"It's all about mental toughness," May said. "You got to want the ball in your hand and want to get the job done and compete. We did not do that tonight."

The bottom of the order for Rosewood had five of the 10 Eagles' hits.

"That's been a struggle for us in the past," Smith said. "One through five has been giving us our hits all year long. It's a pleasure to see sixth through nine come through for us."

Rosewood will host 2-A Farmville Central today at 6 p.m. Spring Creek will also play host to Midway of the Super Six 1-A Conference this afternoon.

Spring Creek 000 330 0 -- 6 7 2

Rosewood 200 111 2 -- 7 10 1

Leading hitters -- Spring Creek -- Michael Russell 1-4, run; Timothy Rogers 2-4, 2 runs, RBI; Josh Singleton 1-2, 2 runs, RBI; Alex Casey 2-3, run, 3 RBI; Kevin Prunest 1-3, RBI. Rosewood -- Trey Kriger 3-4, 2 runs; Kyle Bunn 1-4, run, RBI; David Smeltzer 1-3, run, RBI; Dustin Sittig 2-3, run; Goss Kendall 2-3, run RBI; 1-1, RBI.

IP H R ER BB SO

Spring Creek

A. Brogden 5 8 4 2 0 5

R. Grady (L) 1 2 3 3 2 1

T. Rogers 1/3 0 0 0 3 1

Rosewood

K. Bunn 5 7 6 6 4 7

Taylor Allen (W) 2 0 0 0 0 5