Spring Creek takes advantage of Rosewood errors
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on March 30, 2012 1:49 PM
Spring Creek made the most of scoring opportunities.
Rosewood wondered what could have been.
The Eagles committed 15 errors and the Gators hung on for a 17-13 win in Carolina 1-A Conference play Thursday evening. The game took three-plus hours to finish.
Nine different Gators recorded at least one hit. Zach Harrell (three RBI), Chris Nichols (three RBI), Duane Gurganus (two RBI) and Allen Coor (RBI) each had two hits.
"We did a good job of taking advantage of their mistakes," Gators head coach Heath Whitfield said. "Everyone in our starting lineup had a hit and I thought we swung the bat well from top to bottom in our order."
Nichols' three-run double in the top of the third inning gave Spring Creek the lead for good at 4-2. John Winslow trimmed the deficit to 4-3 with an RBI single in the Eagles' half of the inning.
Zach Harrell's two-run double and Gurganus' RBI double pushed the Gators' advantage back to 7-3. The teams traded runs on a passed ball, an RBI double, an error and a groundout during the next two innings.
Spring Creek used just three hits to tack on five runs in the top of the sixth inning thanks to three walks, a passed ball, a hit batter, an error and a sac fly.
"This is an entirely different ballgame without the errors," Eagles head coach Jason King said. "We made way too many mistakes defensively and we definitely put ourselves in a hole."
Rosewood starting pitcher Reed Howell delivered an RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Luke Miller's RBI single and an Eagles error led to two additional Spring Creek runs in the top of the seventh. Miller finished with three hits and Gurganus earned the win on the mound.
The Eagles pushed across six runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Will Winslow, Kahlil Warren and Will Lane each had two hits for Rosewood.