Senerchia exits playoffs with loss to SK

Matt Metcalf
Posted 7/30/15

Senerchia – Post 74 was bounced from the American Legion playoffs on Tuesday night at McCarthy, as South Kingstown – Post 39 led from start to finish in a convincing 8-0 victory.

The Hawks …

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Senerchia exits playoffs with loss to SK

Posted

Senerchia – Post 74 was bounced from the American Legion playoffs on Tuesday night at McCarthy, as South Kingstown – Post 39 led from start to finish in a convincing 8-0 victory.

The Hawks were forced to play from behind early, which didn’t bode well for them, with SK plating a run on an RBI single from Jacob Beretta in the top of the first.

Senerchia starter Marc Andrews would escape that first frame without further damage, but in the second, SK would tack on three more runs with two outs in the inning.

Andrews would retire the first two hitters in the inning, but then the wheels began to fall off, as the next five hitters reached base – three on singles, one on a walk and another on an intentional pass.

Former Hendricken outfielder Jason Comeau would lace an RBI single to put his old teammates in an even larger hole, scoring Kevin Roberts to make it 2-0.

Brad Douglas then singled two batters later to bring home Comeau and Austin Butler to up SK’s lead to 4-0.

After that, Senerchia was never able to grab any sort of momentum.

“To be honest, coming into this game my mindset was that we had to score first,” Senerchia head coach Chris Sheehan said. “I think that would’ve helped with the mentality of the team because we struggle playing from behind sometimes – especially when we fall behind early.”

After getting down early, Senerchia seemed a bit deflated, but reliever Joe Maynard would give his squad a boost.

The right-hander took over on the mound in the third inning, and he would be extremely effective, hurling six innings and only allowing one earned run. He struck out three over that span.

Maynard held off SK long enough to give his offense the chance to mount a comeback, but unfortunately, Senerchia’s lineup couldn’t solve SK starter Scott Embleton.

“He did a great job in relief,” Sheehan said of Maynard. “That was huge for us. He gave us a shot to make a comeback, but we just never got the big hit. Credit to their pitchers for throwing strikes, changing speeds and keeping our guys off balance.”

In the fifth inning, SK made it 5-0 on an unearned run, as Jimmy Folco grounded out to second to bring home Douglas after an error earlier in the inning.

SK added one more in the seventh off of Maynard and two in the top of the ninth off of left-hander Caleb Wurster to balloon its lead to 8-0.

Senerchia’s best chance at the plate came in the eighth inning. It loaded the bases on a double by Dave Defusco and singles from Colin McBride and Billy Roberge, but none of the three made it home, as Embleton worked out of the jam.

That ended Embleton’s outing after seven shutout innings. He allowed five hits and walked just one to go along with seven strikeouts en route to picking up the win.

With the win, SK moved on to play Collette Vacations – Post 79 in the Final Four on Wednesday. Results were unavailable at press time.

It wasn’t the most glamorous of exits for the young Senerchia squad, but Sheehan was pleased with how the summer went as a whole.

After all, the Hawks were one of the final six teams standing with a roster that lacked much varsity experience.

“Overall, it was a great summer,” Sheehan said. “This game didn’t go our way – we couldn’t battle out of that hole – but the team fought the whole way.”

Sheehan also felt that it was a successful summer in terms of developing young players within the program.

“Looking at the youth of our team, I think it was an awesome summer for some of those younger guys to develop,” Sheehan said. “Just off the top of my head, I can think of eight guys who really showed a lot this summer. That’s awesome for them heading into next year. Obviously, you’d like to win the last one, but I can’t complain too much.”

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