Burns' walk-off home run saves Eagles

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 29, 2014 11:24 PM

• Print
• Email

rcoggins@newsargus.com

Alicia Burns learned to believe in herself during Rosewood's historic run on the basketball court.

She gained a little more self confidence on the softball diamond Friday evening.

The senior infielder drilled a two-RBI, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, lifting the Eagles to a come-from-behind, 13-12 victory over Carolina 1-A Conference rival Spring Creek.

"I just watched it the whole way in, kept my back shoulder up and drove it," said a rain-soaked Burns, who finished the night 3-for-4 with four RBI.

Burns' dramatic shot that landed 20-plus feet behind the center-field fence was just a microcosm in a game filled with as many subplots as a daytime TV soap opera.

Each team wanted to forget previous conference losses from earlier in the week. Players toiled through three-plus innings of rain that turned a hardened dirt infield into a slow mud track.

Rosewood starting pitcher Callie Thornton blacked out on the pitcher's mound with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. Her mom, who is a nurse, another nurse and SC head coach/first responder Lester Boltinhouse attended to Callie. They checked her blood pressure, gave her a few sips of water and assisted her off of the field.

Backup pitcher Hailey Weeks needed just two pitches to induce an inning-ending groundout, which eventually set the table for Burns' heroics.

"Oh my gosh, I've never been so scared in my life because me and Callie are really good friends," Burns said. "I was so nervous, didn't know what was going on. She'll get back at it next week when we need her."

Thornton, Weeks, Spring Creek starter Rachel McCollum and reliever Ashley Marriner combined to throw 315 pitches in the 2-hour, 31-minute affair. The two teams combined for 18 earned runs and six errors defensively.

Rosewood (3-1 overall, 3-1 CC) remained one game behind defending champion Princeton in the league standings. Spring Creek (5-3) exited 2-2 against conference opposition this season.

"I told the girls after the North Duplin game, if we're going to have a loss, let's have it early in the season," third-year RHS head coach Shay Campbell said. "I felt like we were going to be OK with this game (and) we were going to hit the ball, but you can't take anything away from Spring Creek.

"They hit the ball extremely well today."

The Eagles built a 7-3 lead that included Anna Ingram's first-inning, three-RBI home run. But Gators eventually tied it at 7-all on Daisy Martinez's two-out double down the right-field line in the fourth inning.

The Eagles moved back in front 9-7 in their half of the fourth before falling behind 12-9 in the fifth. Alanna Price swatted her third homer of the season, a two-run blast over the right center-field fence.

SC has eight homers as a team this spring.

Marriner replaced McCollum in the circle in the sixth and retired the Eagles in order. She induced back-to-back fielder's choice groundouts in the seventh before leaving a pitch up in the zone against Burns.

"I knew it was gone right when it hit the bat ... felt so good coming off the bat," a smiling Burns said. "Coming from basketball season, being put in tough situations isn't really anything new.

"We didn't play the way we could, definitely didn't play the way we should have. We're so much a better team than this."