1A PLAYOFFS: East Carteret knocks out Spring Creek in 4th round

By Brandon Davis
Published in Sports on May 22, 2016 1:47 AM

• Print
• Email

bdavis@newsargus.com

SEVEN SPRINGS -- An emotional Spring Creek baseball team emerged from its final post-game huddle of the season.

Some players walked to the dugout, while others hugged their coaches. But they all heard their fans tell them to hold their heads up.

East Carteret scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning and defeated Spring Creek, 6-2, in the fourth round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A baseball playoffs Friday evening.

The teams were tied at 2-2 after six innings.

"I wish I knew," Spring Creek head coach Heath Whitfield said, who watched the game slip away in the seventh.

"We just sorta did some things uncharacteristic. We made a couple errors that we don't usually make. We had some seniors to make some errors that we haven't made all year. That's just baseball. The wheels came off a little bit.

"It's sad to see you battle toe-to-toe, and you're in the seventh inning and all of a sudden it happens."

Senior Will Rouse scored Hunter Walker to give Spring Creek a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning. East Carteret tied the game on Brennan Lewis' RBI hit to center field.

The Mariners moved in front 2-1 on Landon Gillikin's hit.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Gators answered with the game-tying run. Rouse hit the ball to shortstop Ethan Lunk and Sawyer Smith sprinted toward home. Lunk threw the ball to his catcher and Smith stirred up the dust as he slid safely over the plate.

Smith replaced Rouse on the mound in the top of the seventh. East Carteret went on a scoring spree sparked by Spring Creek errors.

Lewis shut the door on the Gators with a pair of strikeouts in the bottom of the seventh, which helped his team advance to the best-of-three eastern regional championship series.

"We've won those games all year long," Whitfield said. "All year long, we've been able to find a way to win those games, but sooner or later it's going to go the other way.

"Unfortunately for us, it ended the season for us, but I couldn't be more proud of this group. They've proved a lot of people wrong around here and all over the conference. They're just a group of over achievers."

Whitfield exited the huddle with a group on his mind - his seniors.

"(I) just told them that I love them," he said. "They led this program for four years. They won two back-to-back conference championships. I love them and I'm proud of them."