Cranston 13s upend Warwick PAL for championship

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 7/19/16

Warwick PAL had already faced Cranston once in the Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars Tournament, and the latter failed to notch a hit in a 3-1 loss. The two sides met again in the finals with Cranston, out of the

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Cranston 13s upend Warwick PAL for championship

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Warwick PAL had already faced Cranston once in the Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars Tournament, and the latter failed to notch a hit in a 3-1 loss.

The two sides met again in the finals with Cranston, out of the losers’ bracket, needing two wins to capture the championship. The offense was much more productive this time around, as Cranston held on for a 10-6 win on Wednesday at Paine Field in Coventry to force a decisive Game 2.

“Warwick only had one hit last Friday last night, we had no hits, but we gave up 10 walks, they only gave up two,” Cranston manager Bob DeCosta said. “Each one of these kids, one through 12, gave us something. That’s just so important. These kids did it. They came back, and I’m really proud of them.”

The momentum rolled into Thursday, too. MVP Matt Davila went all seven for Cranston, holding Warwick to two hits and no walks, while the offense pulled away for an 8-0 victory and the title.

“Just throw strikes and don’t get any walks, because that’s what cost us the first game [against PAL],” Davila said. “So, you know, I just pounded it in there and let my defense do the work.”

Davila was a puzzle that PAL couldn’t solve all day long, advancing a runner into scoring position just three times all afternoon. The defense, which had committed numerous errors in Game 1, fell in line for the most part on Thursday. PAL’s A.J. Ucci reached by way of two miscues, but Davila was able to stop the bleeding.

“You can’t top that,” DeCosta said of Davila’s performance. “No walks, you can’t top that.”

The Cranston lineup did the rest. The bottom of the order was especially successful, with the No. 7 through 10 hitters scoring five runs and knocking in three.

The last hitter in the order, Al Barricelli, got Cranston on the board first with a sacrifice fly in the second inning. Caleb Harris, whose Cranston Western Little League team last year was no stranger to comebacks, put Cranston ahead 2-0 with an RBI single.

“The first game we were a little bit rattled, but it was no big deal,” Nick Mason, another member of the New England Regional Champion CWLL team from last season, said. “We know we have good kids on our team and obviously we can play our best. I think we have a really good team put together and we can go far and do some damage.”

Jared Olson continued to expand the Cranston lead with an RBI base hit in the third to plate John Nardolillo.

Warwick’s offense failed to muster much on the base paths after falling behind early, and Cranston made it pay later. Cranston tacked on five more in the sixth inning to effectively put the game away.

Cranston had runners at second and third with one out before Jared Reminder got Davila to go down swinging. Reminder walked Cocoli with his sights set on Barricelli as the final out. Barricelli delivered, though, lining a 2-RBI single up the middle to pad the lead, 5-0.

Leadoff hitter Dave Bussius added two more with a blooper to right field and Mason’s RBI liner to left closed the scoring. The 8-0 advantage was more than enough for Davila to close it out. He forced three ground outs on eight pitches to clinch the championship for Cranston.

“We didn’t get a couple calls we should’ve gotten, and that kind of took the guys out of the game a little bit,” Warwick manager Mike Cook said. “We fought, we battled and things didn’t go our way. That’s baseball.”

Cranston took hold of momentum in the fifth inning Wednesday night and never relinquished it. Jack Gannon, who had no-hit Cranston earlier in the tournament, cruised into the fifth with a 3-1 lead before the opposition turned on the jets.

Cranston scored nine times in the final three frames to stun Warwick, starting things off with a five-run fifth inning. This time, it was the top of the order that scorched Warwick PAL. Nardolillo drove in a run when he was plunked with the bases loaded, while Del Signore, Rush and Davila all followed with run-scoring hits. The first five in Cranston’s order all scored in the fifth.

Warwick cut the deficit down to 6-5 after a misplayed ball in left field allowed Ucci to score from first and Gannon to touch them all. Cranston’s offense would be undeterred, providing more insurance for relievers Mason and Olson.

Bussius scored on an error while Del Signore capped his 3-RBI day with a blooper into center field that extended the lead to 8-5.

Warwick would chip away once again in the sixth, whittling the lead to 8-6, but Barricelli showed a glimmer of his production to come in Game 2 with a 2-RBI double in the seventh inning.

PAL loaded the bases with no one out in the seventh, but Olson forced a fielder’s choice, foul pop and ground out to escape the jam.

“It was a nice run,” Cook said. “Everybody’s upset, and rightfully so. We played a good team, Cranston’s a good team.”

Next up for Cranston is a trip to the regional tournament in Rochester, New Hampshire.

“I think we can take it,” Mason said of regionals. “It’s gonna be tough, though. We have to work our butts off every day in practice. We have to be prepared.”

“It’s all how you gel at the time,” DeCosta said. “These kids are gelling. They’re really starting to hit the ball. It’s only a short period you have to work with these kids, and they need a lot of work, they’re 13 years old. This is a big field for them. I’m really proud of them. I feel good about going to the regionals with them.”

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