Rosewood dumps archrival Princeton

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on April 22, 2009 1:46 PM

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PRINCETON -- A fourth-inning rain shower could not extinguish Rosewood's red-hot offense during its 17-5 romp over Carolina 1-A Conference archrival Princeton on Tuesday evening.

The Eagles (10-5 overall, 4-1 CC) exacted revenge against the Bulldawgs, who claimed a three-run victory just four days earlier in the eighth annual Deacon Jones Invitational.

"Tonight was a big confidence builder for our guys," said Rosewood head coach Jason King. "We have had some guys struggling at the plate. I thought we did a better job tonight getting guys on base and driving them in when we got the chance."

Princeton was its own worst enemy the entire game, committing a season-high 10 errors and permitting 12 unearned runs.

"Rosewood is a good team and they deserve a lot of credit," said Princeton head coach Bruce Proctor. "They put the ball in play and we couldn't make the plays in the field."

Despite the lopsided final score, the Bulldawgs (7-11, 1-4) had their own opportunities to break the game open and seized a 5-4 lead in the third inning.

Randy Deaver drew a lead-off walk and advanced to second base on Dylan Myers' single. Two batters later, Sean Carpenter plated both runners with a double. Josh Bizzell followed with a run-scoring single.

The Eagles answered during their fourth at-bat.

Scott Pate, Jonathan Franks and Trevor Cox each delivered a single to load the bases with no outs. James McNeill plated the game-tying run with an RBI groundout. Taylor Price reached on an error that allowed the go-ahead run to score and Matt Neal delivered an RBI single.

Cody Richards capped the outburst by reaching on the Dawgs' second defensive miscue of the inning.

"I challenged my guys to come out and play like they did in the first month of the season," said King. "I was happy with the intensity and I was glad that they responded."

The 9-5 lead was more than enough for Neal, who settled in during the late innings and retired eight of the Dawgs' final 10 batters by strikeout.

"We expect a quality start from Matt whenever we give him the ball," said King, whose team visits Ayden-Grifton on Friday. "He struggled a little bit in the first part of the game but he gave us all he had."

Princeton entertains Spring Creek on Thursday. The Gators have won both meetings this season.