NCHSAA 1-A East finals: Rosewood's season ends with 14-5 loss to Dixon
By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on May 29, 2010 11:54 PM
HOLLY RIDGE -- Rosewood just ran out of available arms.
The Eagles used four different pitchers in a 14-5, season-ending loss to Dixon in game three of their N.C. High School Athletic Association 1-A eastern regional championship series Saturday evening.
The Bulldogs face West Wilkes in the best-of-three, state title series next weekend at Five County Stadium in Zebulon.
"We played five games in seven days and it showed on our guys tonight," said second-year Eagles head coach Jason King. "We had a lot of sore arms and we just ran out of pitchers."
Rosewood jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Taylor Price reached due to catcher's interference and Matt Neal followed with a base hit. Will Winslow was hit by a pitch and Jonathan Franks belted a sacrifice fly. Will Beasley walked and Scott Pate capped the scoring with a two-run double.
Dixon immediately answered.
Rookie Davis belted a two-run home run on a two-strike pitch that cut the Rosewood lead in half. Davis finished the three game series 4-for-4 with three home runs and eight walks. The East Carolina signee also collected 8 RBI.
"I was a little surprised that they decided to pitch to me," said Davis. "I have been seeing the ball really well lately and I haven't been missing many pitches. I got a two-strike curve ball and hit it hard."
The Bulldogs took the lead in the second inning when T.J. Johnson drew a walk. Rodman Young followed with a walk and Matt Rouse was hit by a pitch. Davis delivered two runs when he reached on a fielder's choice that resulted in a subsequent throwing error.
Patrick Batchelor walked and Dan Brown forced in a run by taking ball four.
Rosewood (19-8 overall) tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the third when Winslow was hit by a pitch and promptly stole second. Beasley belted an RBI single that pulled the Eagles even.
"We have a really good core group of seniors and we gave it all that we had tonight," said King. "We stayed alive with our bats, but in the end they got the best of us."
Dixon scored three runs in the bottom of the third on RBI base hits by Batchelor and Caleb Lanier. The Bulldogs broke the game open in the fourth when three consecutive hitters each drew a walk in front of Davis, who earned an RBI walk of his own.
Batchelor reached on an error that plated two additional runs and Lanier made the Dixon lead 12-5 with an RBI single.
Rosewood pitchers were saddled with 11 walks on the night. Neal took the loss in relief.
Batchelor tossed a complete game that encompassed 107 pitches en route to the mound win.