It’s still very early in the season, but the undefeated Sandy Creek Patriots already have proven that they are a team to keep an eye on.

Creek came from behind Thursday, scoring four runs in the fifth inning en route to winning their sixth consecutive game, 4-3 over the Starr’s Mill Panthers in a non-region game in Fayetteville.

It was Creek’s lowest scoring game of the season, but it showed another aspect of the Patriots team — its ability to battle back when behind — and kept Creek’s undefeated record intact.

One of Creek’s biggest problems last season was losing close games.

“We’ve won two one-run games this year,” Creek coach Eddy Householder said. “Last year, I think we lost seven one-run games. I feel our maturity level is so much better, and everybody is contributing. It’s early right now. I don’t want to get too excited, but you have to be a little excited with what you see.”

Down 2-0 entering the fifth, two of Creek’s first three batters reached base on balls that could have been ruled either hits or errors.

Avery Anderson started Creek’s rally by reaching second on a blooper that dropped into shallow right field, and Russell Bonner followed with a fly ball to deep right field that fell for a triple, scoring Anderson.

Then Braxton Lane tied the game with a groundout.

Two batters later, Duncan Midkiff, Craig Carroll and Nathan Bowen hit three consecutive singles. One run scored on Carroll’s hit, and another scored on a throwing error following Bowen’s hit.

Starr’s Mill had its chances to regain the lead and pull out the victory, but it stranded a runner on third in the sixth and runners on second and third in the seventh.

The Panthers’ David Norman ripped a two-out RBI single to left field in the sixth to make it a one-run game, but Patriots pitcher Hunter Parrott closed the inning without allowing further damage by inducing Austen Wiley to ground out to second with a runner on third.

Starr’s Mill's Kevin Koziol walked and Miles Jaye singled to center field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, setting up one of its top hitters, Ed Cook, to deliver the game-winning hit.

But Creek’s Anderson struck out Cook swinging to record the save and, more important, secure yet another victory for the surging Patriots.

Anderson struck out three and gave up one hit and one walk in one inning of work.

Parrott struck out three and allowed one hit, two walks and one run in three innings to record the victory.

Norman hit a sacrifice fly in the second and Bryan Hasse, who had walked to start the inning, scored on a passed ball in the third for Starr’s Mill first two runs.

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