By By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
GOLDSBORO — Northside was hoping to pull off an upset as the lone wild-card team from the east in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A state baseball playoffs. However, the Rosewood Eagles were more than ready for the Panthers, taking a 13-1 victory in Friday night’s first-round game.
Rosewood (15-6), the Carolina Conference champions, got a dominating pitching performance out of Matt Neal. He had plenty of offensive support as the Eagles cranked out 12 hits.
Will Beasley smashed a pair of home runs, including a three-run shot, while driving in four runs. Will Grantham had three hits and three RBIs. Cody Harris ripped three hits and drove in a pair. Neal helped his own cause by knocking in three.
“That is a good baseball team,” Northside coach Keith Boyd said of the Eagles.
Boyd is hoping his team will soon achieve the same status as the Eagles.
“It’s going to take a lot of work in the offseason,” Boyd said. “As a whole, everybody has to stop picking the glove up for winter conditioning and then laying it down for six months.
“We have to continue to play a little bit. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to hit the baseball. That has been our Achilles heel all year. If these guys want to get to this level, they have to understand what it’s going to take.”
Boyd will get the bulk of his team back next year. He said the playoff experience will benefit his team.
“The experience will help,” Boyd said. “Getting to drive two hours to come here and seeing a stacked team, which is undefeated in their conference, that will help.”
The Panthers (8-15) scored their lone run in the top of the fifth. Tyler Waters hit a leadoff single into right field, just Northside’s second hit of the contest. Dillon Cutler reached on a fielder’s choice to get two aboard. A wild pitch allowed the two runners to move up a base.
Taylor Woolard’s sac fly into right allowed Waters to score easily from third.
Rosewood’s runs came much easier. The Eagles scored in every inning, leading to the game being called in the fifth because of the 10-run rule.
Taylor Price (2-3) hit a leadoff double and he scored on a single by Harris for a 1-0 first-inning lead.
Beasley (2-3, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs) jumped on the first pitch he saw in the second and drove it over the fence in left. Grantham (3-3, 3 RBIs) and Harris (3-4, 2 RBIs) added RBI singles and Will Winslow brought in another run with a sac fly to make it 5-0.
A two-run double by Neal (1-2, 3 RBIs) and an RBI single by Grantham extended the lead to 8-0 in the third.
Beasley’s three-run blast highlighted a five-run fourth that gave the Eagles a 13-0 cushion. Grantham added his third RBI-single of the game and Neal’s sac fly capped the Rosewood scoring.
That was more than enough for Neal, who held the Panthers to one hit over four innings while striking out three. Brandon Marsh had Northside’s only hit off Neal, which came in the fourth.
Marsh suffered the loss on the hill.
It was the final game for Northside seniors Tyler Woolard, Eric Collier and Justin Boyd.
“Those three kids have been with us for four years,” Boyd said. “They played every year and they were always ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’ guys. They did whatever you asked.
“When you have people go through what they’ve gone through as far as wins and losses and are still hanging in there with you, you learn two things — their love for the game and the character that they have. Hats off to them for that.”
Northside 000 00 – 0 2 3
Rosewood 143 5x – 13 12 1
WP: Matt Neal; LP: Brandon Marsh
N – Brandon Marsh 1-2, Tyler Waters 1-2 (run), Taylor Woolard 0-1 (RBI); R – Will Grantham 3-3 (3 RBIs), Cody Harris 3-4 (2 RBIs), Will Beasley 2-3 (2 HRs, 4 RBIs), Taylor Price 2-3 (2B), Matt Neal 1-2 (2B, 3 RBIs), Scott Pate 1-2.