GOLDEN LEAF INVITATIONAL: Rosewood wins wild affair over No. Nash

By Brandon Davis
Published in Sports on March 29, 2016 1:48 PM

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bdavis@newsargus.com

WILSON -- His mask pushed back and his glove turned upright, Rosewood catcher Ethan Chapin raced toward the fence in the sixth inning.

But the foul ball dropped by his feet.

Three innings later, Chapin stepped up to bat with the game tied at 8-all. He slammed a hit to center field and helped lift the Eagles to a 13-8 victory over Northern Nash during the third annual Golden Leaf Invitational on Monday afternoon.

"When I missed the ball, I felt bad," Chapin said. "I knew I should be catching those because it's just easy. It's just a pop fly, but it swerved with the wind going 20 miles an hour. It made it a lot tougher.

"Then when I had that hit, that caused the other runs, I felt like that made up for a lot of the errors and then the foul ball I missed -- it helped us win the game."

The Eagles flew past the Knights, 3-1, at the top of the third inning when senior Hayden Amodeo knocked the ball to right field and brought in junior Derek Neal and sophomore Kolby Harris.

However, Northern Nash fought back in the bottom to tie the game and allowed only one hit from the Eagles.

Harris stole home, and Amodeo hit a line drive to Northern Nash's shortstop in the fifth and sophomore Jonathan Peacock scored for the Eagles.

That's when Knights senior Brandon Lewis grabbed a bat in the sixth.

The ball nicked Lewis' bat and popped up in the air. Chapin missed the catch. Lewis jogged to first base after a controversial call over a "bounced ball" during the next play. Junior Dwight Daniels launched the ball to center field, and Lewis scored to put the Knights just one run behind the Eagles.

Amodeo and sophomore Chance Howard entered the seventh inning to potentially close out the game. Amodeo brought in Peacock, and Howard sent home sophomore Conner Vernon and Amodeo.

Rosewood led 8-4 going in the bottom of the seventh.

The Eagles put in their third pitcher, junior Boone Moody, after utilizing senior Nick Neal and sophomore Tucker Chapin. The Knights took advantage and scored four times in the final inning to tie the game at 8-8.

Chapin stood at the plate at the top of the ninth.

He delivered the ball to center field, and Moody put the Eagles ahead of the Knights. Harris hit the ball to center field as well and brought in Chapin. Three more runs followed before Howard -- Rosewood's fourth pitcher of the game -- held Northern Nash scoreless in the bottom of the ninth.

Amodeo ended the game with five RBI. Neal threw five strikeouts and Moody left as the winning pitcher.

"Ethan has been hot pretty much all season long at the plate," Rosewood head coach Jason King said. "We have a lot of confidence in him, he's got a lot of confidence in himself. He's not going to drop his head at the plate because he made an error on the field.

"I got a lot of confidence in these guys (Eagles). I'm not going to say the game was ever over, but obviously, we had a four-run lead. The mistakes had to be cleaned up."

Rosewood (8-4 overall) plays Hunt today at 3 p.m.