North Johnston profits from miscues

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 4, 2008 1:50 PM

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Although it's been no stranger to adversity this season, Rosewood's varsity baseball team got another healthy dose on a miserable Thursday evening.

Battling rainy conditions and an advantageous North Johnston team, the Eagles suffered an 11-2 loss in Class 1-A Carolina Conference play. Officials halted the game in the sixth when the weather worsened and field conditions became unplayable.

Rosewood entered the game with five wins in its last six outings.

In a cool, driving rain, the Eagles (6-6 overall, 1-1 CC) hurt themselves with five errors. Four miscues factored into a seven-run, fourth-inning outburst for the Panthers, who improved to 2-0 in league play this season.

"The weather conditions were bad but they had to play through the same stuff we did," said Rosewood head coach Josh Smith. "I think once we got down a little bit, the errors just made things a little bit worse. If we could have just made a couple of those plays, the score might have been 3-1 or 2-1 which is a better ballgame."

North Johnston (6-4) led 4-1 through three innings.

The Eagles couldn't manufacture timely hits and move runners around the bases during that stretch. They scored in the second inning, but left a runner aboard and stranded two more in the third.

Rosewood trimmed the in the fifth inning. Robert Franks, who tallied two hits, crossed home on a wild pitch. Will Beasley and Matt Neal also collected two hits apiece for the game.

Smith feels confident the loss will prove valuable.

"We can learn that the conference is going to be tough top to bottom," Smith said. "Any given night anybody can play well, anybody can play bad. It's a fight tooth and nail. Adversity is a big part of baseball and how you handle adversity is either going to make you a winner or a loser."

Rosewood resumes Carolina Conference play at home Tuesday against county rival Spring Creek. First pitch is 7 p.m.