Gators start slow, cruise past Wildcats

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 21, 2015 11:28 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

SEVEN SPRINGS -- Sawyer Smith sighed in relief when Spring Creek teammate Kane Geelen scooped up a grounder and tagged first base for the final out of the first inning.

He tapped gloves with Geelen as the two headed toward the dugout.

"Lost it there for a little bit, but I found it again," said Smith, who allowed Hobbton's first three batters to reach on a shallow left-field double and back-to-back walks.

"Don't let it happen again," SC head coach Heath Whitfield said.

"Yes, sir," Smith said.

He didn't.

The sophomore right-hander retired 11 of 13 batters in a four-inning stretch and the Gators cruised past the Wildcats, 9-1, in a Carolina 1-A Conference game at "The Swamp" on Friday evening. Smith, Will Rouse and Chad Spurgeon combined for a six-hitter on the bump, and held the Wildcats to one hit in seven chances with runners in scoring position.

Hobbton (1-3 overall, 0-2 CC) left the bases loaded in the first inning, and stranded runners at second base in each of the fifth and sixth innings. Mason Wilson drove in the Wildcats' lone run with single to shallow center field in the sixth.

"We had our clean-up hitter coming up (in the first) and that's where you want to be, but we couldn't get anything out (it) ... need some more timely hits," said Hobbton coach Les Spell, whose youth-ladened team -- with only one senior -- has manufactured just seven runs in four outings this season.

"We're a very young team and we need some breaks."

Spring Creek (2-3, 2-0) encoutered the same trouble during the first two innings. The Gators stole five bases, but couldn't score with three men in scoring position.

They broke through in the fourth.

Allen Coor connected on a two-out single, swiped his first bag of the day and rushed home on Spurgeon's base knock to center field. The back-to-back hits sparked a three-run outburst that included an RBI triple by Smith that bounced off the wall in left-center field.

Rouse supplied an RBI double.

The Gators led 3-0.

"We couldn't get the big hit in the situation that we needed to (early), but the kid (Hobbton pitcher Gage Herring) had a little velocity, he was getting the ball up a little bit and we weren't getting around on it ... popping it up," said Whitfield, whose team stole 11 bases on the day.

Spring Creek broke open the game with six runs over a two-inning span. Coor, Spurgeon, Smith and Rouse -- who combined for 10 hits and eight RBI -- helped give the Gators their 14th league win in their last 16 attempts.

Coor and Rouse had three hits apiece.

"Sawyer has always been our two-hole hitter and we were struggling knocking in runs the first two games, so we moved him to the five hole the last game and so far that's paid off real well," Whitfield said.