Ayden-Grifton outlasts Rosewood baseball
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 21, 2012 11:20 PM
Rosewood head coach Jason King has seen flashes of growth and signs of inexperience from his young team at times this season.
King saw glimpses of both on Friday night.
The Eagles committed four errors in the first two innings but never stopped battling in an 11-4 loss against Carolina 1-A Conference foe Ayden-Grifton.
The Chargers (10-8 overall, 5-1 CC) scored four runs in the top first inning on five hits and two Rosewood' errors. Blake Allen, Hunter Cannon and Mike Stancil each had RBI singles. Allen scored on an error.
Ayden-Grifton picked up a run in the top of the second on two Eagles' errors as the lead grew to 5-0.
"A good team like Ayden-Grifton they going to take advantage of extra outs," King said. "They scattered some hits here and there, and then there were a couple I felt like we should have made plays on that we didn't.
"You put guys on base for a good team they're going to make you pay for it."
Rosewood pushed across two runs in the bottom of the third as Matt Shaw scored on an error and Will Winslow provided an RBI single.
Matt Sugg's RBI single in the top of the fourth inning and Cole Whitehurt's two-run double extended the Chargers' lead to 8-2. Whitehurst later scored on a passed ball.
The Eagles (4-12, 1-5) got a run back on Winslow's RBI double in the home half of the fifth inning to cut the margin to 9-3. Taylor McGill supplied an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning. Winslow had three hits and two RBI.
Reed Howell and John Winslow, who endured the mound loss, both had two hits.
"They kept fighting and I told them if we didn't spot up four runs in the first inning it might be a different ball game in the seventh and they've got to learn," King said. "It's a huge learning experience for the young guys. The errors that we made early made it tougher on us there at the end."
Rosewood travels to Goldsboro on Tuesday.