CNB forces West Side into winner-take-all state final

Posted 7/24/14

The Warwick West Side 9/10-year-old all-star softball team hadn’t tasted defeat all summer until Tuesday night in the state tournament, but the loss wasn’t the be-all end-all for West Side’s …

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CNB forces West Side into winner-take-all state final

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The Warwick West Side 9/10-year-old all-star softball team hadn’t tasted defeat all summer until Tuesday night in the state tournament, but the loss wasn’t the be-all end-all for West Side’s title hopes.

It still has one last chance to defend its crown.

West Side won its first two games at states, putting it into the championship opposite Cranston National Budlong, where West Side had to be beaten twice to not retain the title.

CNB – which had lost to West Side by two runs earlier in the tournament – got a dominant performance on the mound from pitcher Ava Brandow in knocking off West Side 6-1.

That set up a winner-take-all state championship game, scheduled for Wednesday night at Elmwood’s J.T. Owens Field. The results of that game were unavailable at press time.

It’s the exact same scenario as last season, as West Side came out of the winner’s bracket at states and CNB came out of the loser’s bracket, before CNB knocked off West Side in the first game. West Side then rebounded and won the championship the next day.

“That’s why we love playing them – there’s nobody that we match up better with,” said West Side head coach Kevin Burr. “If you’re going to be the champ, you’ve got to be the best. And both our teams are the best.”

Though Tuesday’s game ended up being a five-run loss for West Side, it was significantly closer than that the whole way. CNB led 2-1 entering the sixth inning, where it exploded for four more runs to put the game away.

Prior to that, though, it was either team’s for the taking.

“We just let the little things get away from us,” Burr said. “Some of the things that we worked on and worked on surprisingly got away from us.”

Brandow was the difference for most of the night. She took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and that was only broken up on a bang-bang play at first on a bunt by West Side’s Ameila Murphy.

Other than that, there were few missteps. She walked five batters and struck out 13, including a stretch from the third to the fifth in which she retired seven consecutive hitters – five by strikeout.

“She’s one of the best pitchers in the state at her age,” Burr said. “We’ve hit her in the past, just today wasn’t the day.”

CNB took the early lead in the second inning, when an infield error allowed Brandow to reach and a walk to Sophia Ferry put two runners on. West Side pitcher Kelsey Burr retired the next two batters, but another infield error on a ball hit by Delaney Doidge let Brandow scamper home to make the score 1-0.

West Side answered back in the third with some small ball, as Bryanna Rastella led off with a walk, stole second and took third and home on passed balls to tie the score.

But the very next inning, CNB took the lead for good. Ferry led off with a walk and a single and a hit batter loaded the bases with nobody out. Doidge then broke the deadlock with an RBI groundout to make it 2-1. Burr managed to get out of the inning without further damage, but West Side was still down by a run.

“Honestly, I think they needed this,” Kevin Burr said. “Not only to help bring it stronger tomorrow, but also a lesson in life. You can’t be the best all the time. Someone is going to knock them down sometime, and they’ve got to get up and push them back.”

Brandow made sure CNB stayed up a run. She struck out the side on just 11 pitches in the fourth inning, then struck out two more in the fifth after Doidge, the catcher, made a strong play on a bunt attempt to open the inning.

Bunting was a common theme for West Side as it tried to create opportunities to score, but either Brandow was able to keep the ball from getting in play or Doidge pounced on balls in front of the plate.

“This team has different ways to win,” Burr said. “We changed it up a little, started to make a drive, we just fell short.”

In the sixth, Kelsey Burr walked Emily Bessette to open the inning, and two batters later Doidge lined a single to center field that scored Bessette. After Burr got the second out of the inning, she walked Mackenzie Bessette and then yielded a two-run single to Emily Lewandowski to make it 5-1. A single later in the frame by Brandow made it 6-1.

Burr ended the day with six strikeouts and five walks, while giving up five earned runs on five hits. Four of those hits came in the sixth inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, West Side got its only hit on the bunt single by Murphy, and Burr walked two batters later, but Brandow struck out the final two batters of the game.

Now, for the second straight year, one game decides the state championship.

“I have all the confidence in the world in these girls,” Kevin Burr said.

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