PAL Junior Legion team falls just short of title

Posted 8/7/14

With a brutal game two loss of the state championship series behind it, the Warwick PAL Post 101 Junior Legion team took the field for a winner-take-all game three against Riverside Post 10 Tuesday …

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PAL Junior Legion team falls just short of title

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With a brutal game two loss of the state championship series behind it, the Warwick PAL Post 101 Junior Legion team took the field for a winner-take-all game three against Riverside Post 10 Tuesday night and played well for the most part.

Warwick got a strong pitching performance from Steve Foster and committed just one error in the field. But Riverside’s Kam Gianlorenzo stole the show – and the championship for Riverside.

Gianlorenzo tossed a complete-game shutout, striking out 11 batters while surrendering just four hits and walking one, as Riverside won 2-0, sending Warwick to a state-runner-up finish.

Once one out away from the title on Monday night, only to see Riverside rally for four runs in the seventh inning, Warwick was closed out with one of the best pitching performances it saw all season.

During the year, Warwick scored the second-most runs in the state and was shut out just once prior to Tuesday.

“That’s a good team over there,” said Warwick manager Mike Martin. “We played well, just not well enough. They came up two runs short.”

The state championship was the second in a row for Riverside, which was the top team in the state with a 16-2 regular season. Warwick went 14-5 in the regular season and finished first in the South Division.

Tuesday’s game was befitting of two first-place teams. Riverside jumped on top 2-0 in the first inning. Foster walked two men with two outs before Adam Duarte singled in a run and a second run came home on a double steal.

And that was it.

“No complaints,” Martin said. “I’ve got 14 real, real good kids. They’re good baseball players, but better kids. They gave us everything. I’ve got no complaints.”

Gianlorenzo cruised through the first three innings without allowing a base runner, and he struck out five batters during that span. In the fourth, he allowed a leadoff single to Jordan Huntoon, who reached third base with two outs, but Gianlorenzo got Sean Creamer to fly out to end the threat.

In the fifth, he gave up a one-out double to Robert Garceau and a two-out walk to Alec Bloomingburgh, but he came right back to end the inning on a strikeout.

“He was on,” said Riverside manager Keith Marquis. “His curveball was working. This was a great hitting team, and we had to be on to shut them down. Kam finished the game yesterday for us, then came back today and shut them down. He was incredible.”

Threatening ever so slightly but pushing no runs across was a familiar refrain for Warwick all game long. In the sixth, Huntoon singled to lead off, but Anthony Russo’s bunt attempt went up in the air to Gianlorenzo, who caught it, whirled and fired to first for a double play.

Gianlorenzo then calmly retired the next man to keep Warwick scoreless through six.

“He threw a lot of off-speed stuff,” Martin said of Gianlorenzo. “He kept us off-balance. He did a real nice job. Hat’s off to him. Other than them, we’ve scored the second-most runs in the league, and he shut us down.”

Yet, Warwick was still in the game because of the work of Foster. He threw a complete game on the mound as well, allowing just four hits. After the first inning he faced just four batters over the minimum.

“Steven didn’t have his best stuff, but Steven is a battler,” Martin said. “He really battled for us.”

In the top of the seventh, Warwick made one final push. Creamer doubled to open the inning. Gianlorenzo struck out the next man and then got the second out on a groundout. It looked like he had finished the game on another strikeout, this one of Anthony Cardarelli, but the ball got away from the catcher and his throw to first was high, allowing Cardarelli to reach.

The next batter, Bloomingburgh, worked a 3-2 count, and on the third ball Cardarelli took off for second thinking that Bloomingburgh had walked. With both teams confused, Cardarelli cruised into second base, giving Warwick the tying runs in scoring position.

Yet, Gianlorenzo did what he had been doing all game. He fired a fastball past Bloomingburgh for a strikeout to end the game.

“You’ve got to give it to those guys,” Marquis said. “They played a great series.”

The loss ended what was a remarkable run for Warwick, as it won four games in the postseason to reach the finals and then came within a few plays of winning the title.

“I told them, ‘Don’t hang your heads,’” Martin said. “They’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. There’s 14 teams in this league, only two teams can get here. It’s harder to get to the championship game to win it. You’ve got to get through (12) teams to get here.”

Still, there is a silver lining. Both the champion and runner-up advance to the Junior Regional in Manchester, N.H., which is scheduled to run from Saturday to Monday.

“We’ll go up there, we’ll have some fun and we’ll try to win a couple games,” Martin said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

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