Gators rebound for third place victory

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 11, 2015 11:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PRINCETON -- Spring Creek head baseball coach Heath Whitfield received the text around 8 on Friday morning.

He sent out a blast text to his players, telling them to be at "The Swamp" and ready for the short bus ride to Princeton by 10:45.

They were - 15 minutes early.

"When I got there at 10:30, everybody was there ready to go," Whitfield said. "That showed me that they were chomping at the bit, ready to get back to it."

Especially Sawyer Smith.

The junior right-hander tossed a complete-game six-hitter and Spring Creek upended Rosewood, 2-1, for third place in the 2015 Deacon Jones Invitational. Sawyer (3-1) retired seven Eagles on strikeouts and allowed seven total base runners.

Rosewood went down in order in the first and sixth innings.

"Pitching and defense," said Whitfield. "I thought Sawyer threw a heckuva game (and) our catcher Kaden (Geelen) did a heckuva job behind the plate. Our defense was very good."

After studying notes from a 9-0 loss to the Eagles earlier this season, Sawyer and Whitfield decided to pitch in "reverse" fashion. Sawyer consistently mixed in off-speed pitches early in the count and threw a fastball on occasion. The strategy kept Rosewood's batters guessing all afternoon.

Jordan Gurley plated the Eagles' lone run with an RBI groundout in the third inning. The Eagles stranded five runners on the bags, including two in scoring position. Geelen picked off another runner at first base.

Rosewood finished 0-2 in the Invitational for the first time since 2009.

"Sawyer did a great job on the mound," Eagles head coach Jason King said. "We put the ball in play some early ... couldn't do it any consistency or when we had guys on (base). Timely hitting in baseball is everything if you want to score runs and they were a premium today."

Spring Creek (5-5 overall) seized a 1-0 lead on Will Rouse's, second-inning RBI single that bounced past the out-stretched glove of Rosewood second baseman Chance Howard. Tied at 1-1 in the fifth, Limestone commit Allen Coor laced an RBI double down the third-base line that scored Levi Miller as the eventual game-winning run. It was Coor's lone hit of the tournament.

The Gators collected just five hits against RHS right-hander Ethan Chapin, who permitted two earned runs and logged six strikeouts in a complete-game performance on the bump. Whitfield's club ran itself out of scoring opportunities in the first and second innings, and left a total of four men stranded in scoring position in the third through fifth innings combined.

"Offensively, we didn't do a whole lot," Whitfield said. "We did enough to finally scratch it out. It was ugly. But when you hold a team to one run, you've got a great chance of winning."

Smith, fellow Gator Trey Hammonds and Rosewood's Derek Neal were named to the 10-player all-tournament team.