DEACON JONES INVITATIONAL: Gators chomp Hurricanes

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 22, 2017 11:26 PM

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PRINCETON -- Spring Creek's baseball players encountered adversity before they boarded the bus and headed down Highway 70 for day two of the Deacon Jones Invitational on Saturday afternoon.

Three senior starters were absent.

No problem.

Christian Yarbrough batted 4-for-4 and just missed hitting for the cycle, and Robbie Rogers crushed a three-RBI double as Spring Creek hammered Cape Hatteras, 15-4, in the third-place game.

"Obviously, when you don't have three of your senior starters playing with you, it's going to be a lot tougher for you," said Yarbrough. "We had a lot of people step up to the plate today and did what they needed to do."

Yarbrough hit 6-for-7 with two walks, six runs scored and three RBI during the two-day affair. He earned spot on the 10-platyer all-tournament team along with fellow Gator Landon Smothers, who emerged as the winning pitcher against Cape Hatteras.

"When you go up to the plate, you can't really think much," Yarbrough said. "You've just got to get up there, swing the bat and try to do your best. I just stayed calm and swung the bat like I normally do...just tried to get some runs on the board for my team.

"It's all about those guys. I couldn't do without them."

Smothers held the Hurricanes to a pair of hits during a three-inning stint.

Jordan Ammons struck out the CH side in the fifth.

Rogers stroked his mutiple-run twin-bagger into the power alley during the opening inning. SC head coach Heath Whitfield surmised it might have been Rogers' second hit of his career - a bomb that energized his teammates in the dugout.

"He is a blue-collar guy, never misses a practice, always does the little things," gushed Whitfield. "Anything we need done, he's on it...a rake, a tarp, a tamp. You just have to pull for somebody like that."

The Gators cranked out 13 hits on the day. Lead-off man Jensen Barwick went 3-for-4. Josh Lebron delivered an RBI double off the bench and starting pitcher Casey Whitfield plated a run.

"I like the way some of the young guys came in who hadn't played those positions (this season) and I thought they played well," Whitfield said.