SOFTBALL PLAYOFF ROUNDUP

Warwick squads ousted in openers

Posted 6/3/14

The Rhode Island Interscholastic League softball playoffs finish with a marathon double-elimination tournament that yields the best of the best, but they start with a single-elimination first round …

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SOFTBALL PLAYOFF ROUNDUP

Warwick squads ousted in openers

Posted

The Rhode Island Interscholastic League softball playoffs finish with a marathon double-elimination tournament that yields the best of the best, but they start with a single-elimination first round that’s ripe for upsets.

Warwick teams couldn’t join the party on Thursday.

In Division I, No. 3 La Salle knocked out No. 14 Toll Gate 10-5 and No. 2 Smithfield ousted No. 15 Warwick Vets 3-1. In Division II, Pilgrim, a seventh seed, fell 10-3 to second-seeded Middletown.

There was one major upset in each division, with No. 13 Mount St. Charles knocking off No. 5 East Providence in D-I, and No. 9 Prout – which went 6-10 – stunning unbeaten North Smithfield in D-II.

In each of the last two years, Toll Gate had made that kind of noise. Last season, they were seeded 12th and ended up as one of the last five teams standing. The year before, they were seeded 11th and finished as one of the last three teams still alive.

For much of Thursday’s game with the Rams, the Titans looked poised for another run. They got home runs from Courtney Conklin and Arizona Hunt-Kirkland and they led 5-2 in the fifth inning.

But the Rams, who beat Toll Gate 13-3 in the regular season, weren’t done. They scored two in the fifth inning to get within a run, then broke through with six runs in an error-filled sixth to blow the game open.

“We had two home runs, the girls made some fantastic defensive plays,” said head coach Shana Willis. “Jamie Hopgood made some great catches and Kelly Berard was very solid in right field. Courtney Marsh pitched a fantastic game. Unfortunately, we had a bad sixth inning.”

The Titans made five errors in the game, and the Rams made them hurt. Kendall Jackson drove in three runs while Kat Braganca had three hits and an RBI.

“We had played very solid through five complete,” Willis said. “We made a few errors in a row and they capitalized.”

The big inning left the Titans with just one more chance to stay alive. They gave it a shot, putting two runners on base, but couldn’t get the rally going as reliever Brianna Swanholm finished off the La Salle win with a scoreless seventh.

“It’s tough after an inning like that, but the girls tried,” Willis said. “We had runners on base in the seventh but we couldn’t get the big hit.”

That was one of the stories of Toll Gate’s season. The Titans went 5-11 but lost four games by two runs or less.

“We hit well but we struggled scoring runs this year,” Willis said. “We were in quite a few games but we struggled to get the big hit. For some reason, it wasn’t meant to be this year.”

The Titans will bid farewell to seniors Conklin, Berard, Hunt-Kirkland and Breana Coleman.

“The seniors were fantastic,” Willis said. “We had a great group of girls this year.”

Warwick Vets finished one game behind Toll Gate in the standings and also delivered a strong performance in a tough match-up.

The ’Canes squared off with Smithfield, who went 13-3 in the regular season, but came in with some confidence. They had lost by just a 3-2 score in their regular-season meeting with the Sentinels.

The playoff rematch was similar, as Vets took a 1-0 lead in the third and held it until the fifth. But the Sentinels scored two to take the lead on a Sam Laliberte two-out, two-run double in the fifth then added a run in the sixth on a Julianna Romeo home run. Vets, which managed only three hits against Smithfield pitcher Megan Long, couldn’t get back into the game.

“It was a very good game,” said Vets coach Paul Kennedy. “We played about as well as we could play. We had the lead in the fifth. We just didn’t have enough.”

Smithfield scored the fourth-most runs in Division I this season, but Vets pitcher Kayla Morin scattered seven hits while holding them to three runs, which matched Smithfield’s lowest run total of the season. Vets didn’t make an error.

“Kayla fielded her position well and pitched a very good game,” Kennedy said.

Emily Walason had two of Vets three hits on the day. Naomi Franzen scored Vets only run when she walked, took second on a Chelsea Reid bunt, moved to third on a Natasha Savage ground-out and scored on a base hit by Morin.

Though Vets went only 4-12 in the regular season, that record represented another improvement. Vets had one win in 2011, two in 2012 and three in 2013. The team will graduate Kiah Marcotte, Maile Tortolanni, Rachel Gousie, Chelsea Reid and Kelsey Houle but will return most of its starting lineup.

“We played much better this year,” Kennedy said. “We had five one-run losses. We were in a lot of games against very good teams. I’m happy with the strides we’re making. We’ve just got to continue it.”

Pilgrim had the most wins of any Warwick team this year, going 7-9 in D-II, but a rough end to the season carried over into the playoffs. The Pats had lost seven of their last 10 when they hit the road for Middletown.

The Islanders, who went 13-5 and won the D-II-East regular-season championship, had too much in the 10-3 victory. Pilgrim actually led 3-1, but the Islanders broke the game open with six runs in the fourth inning and cruised from there.

“We led 3-1 after three-and-a-half and I felt like we had turned a corner,” said head coach Bill Aquilante. “But we had a couple of bad plays in the fourth and then the wheels came off. You looked up and it was 7-3.”

Pilgrim got RBI singles from Jane Dwyer and Ellen McDonnell, while Victoria Blanchard scored the other run on an error. Pilgrim finished with 10 hits to Middletown’s 11, but didn’t score after the fourth inning. The Pats also committed five errors.

The losing season was Pilgrim’s first since 2010, when it went 3-15. Its difficult sub-division didn’t help matters, as Pilgrim had to play two games each against teams that are proving to be as good as advertised. East Greenwich, West Warwick and Exeter/West Greenwich – all of whom are in Pilgrim’s sub-division – are three of the four teams in the semifinals.

Pilgrim says goodbye to seniors Kelsey Johnston and Caitlin Blanchard, who have been mainstays throughout the team’s recent run of success. A strong group will be back, including three players who grabbed starting jobs as freshmen this year.

“Going 7-9, it’s not what you’re striving for,” Aquilante said. “After a 13-3 year, it’s tough to have that year, but that’s high school sports. You’ve got to go with it and hope you come back strong.”

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