Rosewood rally upends Spring Creek

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on May 3, 2009 12:11 AM

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Rosewood only notched six hits against Spring Creek on Friday night.

The Eagles made the most of their limited opportunities.

Will Beasley belted a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Eagles bested the Gators 3-2 on the Carolina 1-A Conference baseball scene.

Trailing 2-1 in the sixth inning, Cody Richards started the Rosewood rally with a leadoff walk. Two pitches later Beasley drove a blast over the left field fence.

"That was one huge swing of the bat," Eagles head coach Jason King said. "If anyone gets a game ball tonight, it's certainly Will Beasley."

The home run was the only misstep in an otherwise sterling outing by Gators starting pitcher Corey Howell.

"Coach Whittington called a pick-off throw and somewhere we missed a sign," Spring Creek head coach Heath Whitfield said. "Those kind of things happen when you have freshmen pitchers, its just too bad that it wound up over the middle of the plate."

Prior to the deciding home run the Gators had controlled the contest.

Spring Creek seized an early lead in the third inning when Eric Edwards drew a walk, advanced on John Mozingo's single and scored on Steven Best's single.

The Gators (9-10 overall, 2-6 CC) made it 2-0 one inning later when Lucas Potter singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Ricky Brayboy plated Potter with a sacrifice fly.

"We came off a big win over Ayden-Grifton and we were hoping to steal one tonight," Whitfield said. "We had some opportunities but we couldn't come up with a clutch hit."

Beasley tossed six innings on the pitcher's mound and struck out three batters to earn the win. Richards entered in the seventh and shut the door for the save.

For Rosewood (12-6 overall, 6-2 CC), the win sets up a marquee matchup on Tuesday with North Duplin. If the Eagles top the Rebels they will lock up second place in the conference standings.

"We have to come out and play a good game, but it's a game with a lot on the line," King said. "We really want to get a home playoff game in the first round and a win on Tuesday would go a long way to acheiving that."