Spruce Creek ends baseball season with regional semifinal loss to Timber Creek
ORLANDO — The ball dropped into no man’s land.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of the Region 1-7A semifinals Friday, the Spruce Creek Hawks led top-seeded Timber Creek 3-2 on the Wolves’ home field. CJ Asbill toed the rubber. Runner Bryce Reddick stood at first base.
Timber Creek’s Zach Walker lifted a popup into shallow left-center field. Shortstop Devon Crown went back. Left fielder Lamar Edwards and center fielder Tyler Boyesen converged.
The ball fell between the three. Reddick sprinted home to knot the game 3-3.
The following hitter, Eli Buffaloe, deposited a ball where no Hawk had a chance at it — a two-run, walk-off dinger over the right-field wall. It was his second home run in as many innings, and it gave the Wolves a 5-3 victory.
No. 4 Spruce Creek ended its season with a 19-10 record.
“They're a very good team, but we haven't been able to finish all year,” coach Matt Cleveland said. “We didn't finish this one, and you have to give them credit. I don't know how the fly ball fell, but it fell. It tied the game, and their guy is really good, the guy who hit the two home runs. There's not much else I can say.”
The Hawks controlled the game from the start. In the top of the first inning, they loaded the bases, and Crown scored, as junior Julian Braga grounded into a fielder’s choice. Senior Andrew Ezell then slashed an RBI single over the shortstop’s head to make it 2-0.
The scoring paused for a while after that as both pitchers settled in.
Brody Juntunen avoided further trouble in the first inning and held Spruce Creek off the scoreboard again until the sixth.
Senior Shane Lavin drew the start for the Hawks and dominated early. After issuing a leadoff hit-by-pitch, he retired 14 Wolves in a row.
Timber Creek (23-6) finally scratched across its first hit with two outs in the bottom of the fifth when Zach Farah doubled. David Colmenares plated him with an RBI single three pitches later, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
In the sixth, the squads traded runs.
Freshman Seamus Moylan was plunked with the bases juiced. That pushed Spruce Creek’s advantage to 3-1 in the top of the inning.
Buffaloe trimmed it back to one run with a one-out bomb to left field in the bottom of the inning.
After Lavin got the second out following Buffaloe’s home run, Brian Kendall doubled and Michael Thomas walked. They each moved up one base on steals.
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Lavin locked into the longest battle of the night with Gabe DeCardenas. Lavin jumped ahead 0-2. DeCardenas fought to a full count, fouling off four pitches in the process. But the Hawks’ lefty preserved their lead with a 10th-pitch breaking ball that DeCardenas waved at for the third strike.
Cleveland had visited the mound before the at-bat but kept Lavin in the game.
“I was going to let him finish that inning,” Cleveland said. “He's our leader. He deserved that.”
Lavin tossed six innings. He surrendered two runs and four hits while fanning five.
Asbill entered in the bottom of the seventh. He induced a flyout by the first batter. Colmenares roped a single to right field, but Asbill K’d the next hitter for the second out.
That’s when Walker blooped the shallow hit, and Reddick, Colmenares’ courtesy runner, crossed the plate.
Buffaloe’s heroics followed.
Crown paced Spruce Creek with two hits. He, Edwards and Boyesen scored the three runs.
The Hawks were the only Volusia-Flagler club to advance past the regional quarterfinals.
Juntunen recorded 5⅓ innings of three-run ball. Kendall relieved him with 1⅔ scoreless frames. The Wolves will host No. 2 Creekside in the region finals Monday.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: High school baseball: Spruce Creek eliminated by Timber Creek on homer
