Edwards' double sparks Dogs past Gators

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 24, 2015 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PRINCETON -- Princeton's Taylor Carroll stood on first base and told teammate Kortney Edwards "she could do this."

Hitless in her previous three at-bats, which included two strikeouts, Edwards faced another two-strike count with the bases loaded.

She just had to believe in herself.

Spring Creek right-hander Rachel McCollum wound up, threw a pitch that was a little up in the strike zone and Edwards did the rest. The third baseman crushed a three-RBI double over the left fielder's head and the extra-base hit sealed a 6-3 triumph over the Gators in Carolina 1-A Conference play Tuesday evening.

"I was just telling myself 'you have to do it for your team, you have to believe in yourself'," Edwards said. "You have to let everything else go, you can do this and your team is relying on you. No matter what, everyone believes you can do this.

"She threw me an outside pitch. My toes were on the plate and I just took it. It felt great coming from two strikeouts to that. It was good."

Just one-half inning earlier, the Bulldogs appeared a little shaken.

Sarah Ford singled to left field, took second on a groundout and advanced to third on a passed ball. She stayed there as teammate Alanna Price stroked a two-strike single into shallow right field.

One out later, Ford and Price scored when Princeton's infield misplayed a ground ball and had an errant throw to first.

"We should have held the ball," PHS head coach Terry Braswell said. "We'll talk about that today in practice."

The teams combined for 13 hits on a breezy, cool night -- but they also combined to hit just 4-for-22 with runners in scoring position. The Gators left four runners aboard, while the Dogs stranded eight.

Spring Creek (4-1 overall, 1-1 CC) broke the scoreless tie on Rachel McCollum's RBI single in the first. McCollum leads the conference in five offensive categories, including an eye-popping .917 batting average and 19 RBI.

But Princeton right-hander Hailey Wood handcuffed the Gators from the point. The right-hander retired 14 of 16 batters she faced in four-place innings and logged six strikeouts.

The Gators had five groundouts and three infield pop-ups during that stretch.

The Bulldogs (5-1, 2-0) moved in front 2-1 on Beth Braswell's solo home run -- her second of the season, and Charley Cox's two RBI single up the middle. Carroll's base knock to left field pushed Princeton's advantage to 3-1 before the late-inning dramatics took place.

"We're one strike from getting out of the (sixth) inning, it was as simple as that," SC head coach Lester Boltinhouse said. "I thought, overall, we played pretty good defense. Our big sticks weren't as hot as they normally are.

"I felt like we were maybe two hits from winning the game."