Baseball -- Gators top county rival

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on April 28, 2004 2:01 PM

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Every week the hot team in the Class 1-A Carolina Conference seems to change as the conference heap remains bunched near the top.

Spring Creek looks to be picking up steam and improving its playoff standing with back-to-back wins on the road over a pair of conference contenders.

One game removed from knocking off Princeton last Friday, the Gators emerged with an 8-4 win at Rosewood on Tuesday.

"We are trying to build a foundation. We are still a new school," Spring Creek coach Roger May said. "It will be a big step for our program if we can make some things happen in the next two weeks."

The win improves Spring Creek (12-9 overall) to 6-3 in conference play heading into Friday's tilt with Farmville Central in Seven Springs. Rosewood (6-11) slipped to 4-5 against Carolina foes as it looks to recover today at county rival and non-conference opponent Charles B. Aycock.

"We played about half our level. We played a terrible game," Rosewood coach Scott Adams said.

Spring Creek fell behind 2-0 after the first inning as Eagles' starter Micheal Render looked to be in control from the opening pitch. The left-hander struck out eight and yielded only one hit -- an infield single to Michael Sigmon -- in the first four innings. Render struck out the side in the third.

The second of four Eagle errors in the fourth allowed Jes Snyder and Michael Sigmon to score and tie the game. Snyder and Sigmon, who finished the evening 3-for-4, reached third and second, respectively, on a double steal.

"He's (Sigmon) been working really hard on his hitting," May said. "We can't always expect Jes to get it done, and Michael has been swinging the bat really good."

The top of the fifth saw Rosewood commit two more costly errors, while Snyder and Sigmon supplied two timely RBI singles to drive Render out of the game. By innings end, the Gators had pushed across six runs on just two hits, benefiting from two walks and a wild pitch.

"We lost concentration. We weren't mentally tough," Rosewood coach Scott Adams said. "We didn't make a couple of plays and weren't able to recover. Spring Creek made the plays and we didn't."

Trailing 8-2, the Eagles scratched for a run in the fourth and the fifth off of Spring Creek starter Sigmon (4-0), who gave up four hits in four consistent innings of work.

Randy Amos provided three innings of no-hit relief work, inducing three straight ground outs in the fifth and striking out the side on eight pitches in the sixth.

Matt Craft started the game with a walk for the Eagles and eventually scored on the first of two balks called on Sigmon. Josh Allen added a run-scoring base hit in the first, plating Taylor Carr, who also singled.

Rosewood managed just two hits in the final six innings.

"I think the most important part of the game is they had four errors, and we put some pressure on them," May said. "When we do the little things right, we can be a good team."

Spring Creek 000 260 0 -- 8 4 2

Rosewood 200 110 0 -- 4 4 4

Leading hitters -- Spring Creek -- Michael Sigmon 3-4, 2B, RBI; Jes Snyder 1-3, RBI, 2 runs. Rosewood -- Josh Allen 1-3, RBI.

IP H R ER BB SO

Spring Creek

Michael Sigmon (W, 4-0) 4 4 4 4 4 4

Randy Amos 3 0 0 0 1 3

Rosewood

Micheal Render (L) 41Ú3 3 7 3 3 8

Dustin Overman 22Ú3 1 1 1 3 0