Eagles post league win

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on April 8, 2009 1:46 PM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- Rosewood scratched out runs in each of the first three innings and shut out Carolina 1-A Conference softball foe Spring Creek 10-0 on Tuesday evening.

Senior Haile Meadows permitted three hits and recorded a career-best 16 strikeouts in the pitcher's circle for the Eagles.

"We have been trying to limit her pitch count a little bit early in the season," said second-year Rosewood head coach Tracie Meadows. "We have a catcher that's just a freshman and she tends to call a lot of off-speed pitches, and that saves some of Haile's stuff for the later innings."

The Eagles took command in the opening inning.

With one out, Jennifer Hall reached on an error and Caitlin Armer singled. Hall scored on a wild pitch and Kayla Ormond drove in Armer with an RBI single.

Spring Creek battled back during its first at-bat.

Kaitlin Casey led off with a single and moved into scoring position when Stacy Lane drew a walk. Two batters later, Elizabeth Edwards loaded the bases with an infield single.

Meadows escaped trouble with back-to-back strikeouts.

"We got some people on early, but we couldn't push any runs across," said second-year Spring Creek head coach Brandon Proctor. "We had to put some people in places that they weren't used to due to some injuries, but I thought our girls played hard. They are showing signs of improvement."

Rosewood (6-2 overall, 1-0 CC) added three insurance runs in the second inning and essentially sealed the contest. Paige Babb singled and crossed the plate when Megann Church reached on an error. Meadows delivered an RBI single and later scored on a wild pitch.

"This was a good game for our offense because I think we really gained some confidence," said coach Meadows. "We ran the bases well and we didn't make the little mistakes that have hurt us in some of our games early in the year."

Spring Creek tallied just one hit in the final six innings.

"We are still working on learning the basics," said Proctor. "A lot of teams don't have to worry about things like that, but with such a young team with very little travel-ball experience, we still have to work on making the easy plays."

The Gators (1-5, 0-2 CC) entertain defending league champion North Johnston today, while Rosewood welcomes North Duplin on Thursday.