Warwick 15’s never grab momentum in tournament exit

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 7/21/15

The Warwick PAL Babe Ruth 15-year-old All Stars were forced to play two games over three games because of torrential rain, culminating in a losers’ bracket send-off courtesy of Coventry, …

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Warwick 15’s never grab momentum in tournament exit

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The Warwick PAL Babe Ruth 15-year-old All Stars were forced to play two games over three games because of torrential rain, culminating in a losers’ bracket send-off courtesy of Coventry, 7-0.

Warwick was knocked down to the losers’ bracket by Cranston, the eventual state champion, in an 8-3 loss on Wednesday. The two had played nearly the first five innings Tuesday night before the sky opened up and the rest of the game was suspended until Wednesday afternoon.

“It may have affected them a little bit,” Warwick manager Bob Denis said about how much the two suspensions after his players. “A lot of kids are playing a lot of baseball lately. At this age, they’re playing junior legion, Connie Mack, they’re playing all kinds of travel ball. They’ve been playing a lot and a lot of them are banged up, I knew that going in.”

After dropping its matchup with Cranston, PAL had to make a quick turnaround for a familiar opponent. Awaiting it for a chance to go to the finals was Coventry, which it previously mercy-ruled to advance to the winners’ bracket final.

Less than an hour after its defeat at the hands of Cranston, Warwick looked to capture some momentum with large clouds once again looming overhead.

However, all the momentum would belong to Coventry. Centerfielder Steven Verrier led off the game with a double before second baseman Colin Sutyla reached on an infield single to put two runners in scoring position. Sacrifice flies from first baseman Nick D’Ambra and pitcher Joey Barter put Coventry ahead, 2-0, before PAL had even stepped up to the plate.

Questionable baserunning plagued PAL during its tilt with Coventry. In the second inning, first baseman Ryan Carlson was on first with one out when second baseman Matt Martinez fouled out just past first base. Carlson, though, was caught far off first and got doubled up to end the inning.

In the third inning, Coventry pinned another run on Warwick starter Jake Coleman after catcher Cam Reid’s RBI single.

Warwick looked poised to finally make an offensive charge in the bottom half of the inning, but another baserunning miscue did it in. Shortstop Zack D’Andrea led off with a double, but was caught trying to advance. He was the first of six PAL players put in scoring position, but none were brought across the plate.

“I’ll put it this way, we play much better when the sun’s out and it’s not raining,” Denis said. “If we played them in a seven-inning game today [Thursday], I think the outcome would have been a lot different.”

Verrier and Sutyla struck again in the fourth. After Verrier singled and stole second, Sutyla drove him in with a single to left field. Sutyla moved to second on Reid’s one-out base hit, and eventually came home on an error at third base. The score was 5-0 after four innings when Warwick saw its game, once again, postponed by a sudden downpour.

With a sunny forecast all day and not a cloud in the sky on Thursday, PAL would have to mount a comeback before quickly preparing for undefeated Cranston. The order proved a bit too tall. Impatience at the plate and on the base paths would be Warwick’s downfall in the three-inning continuation.

Evan O’Connor led off the fifth with a single before reaching second on a stolen base. Coleman then sent a soft grounder to shortstop and was out at first, but then the ball was fired back across the diamond to catch O’Connor advancing for the double play. Dylan Palmiotti picked up a two-out single, but a Kyle Denis pop-up ended the inning.

“I think they were putting a lot of pressure on themselves, which we coaches don’t advocate that,” Denis said. “We say, ‘Listen, take one pitch at a time. One batter at a time. One ball at a time.’”

In the sixth, Sean Blanchard and Carlson sent two quick groundouts to shortstop after not waiting very long at the plate. Martinez picked up his second hit of the game with two outs, but D’Andrea flew out to end any sort of threat.

Martinez also pitched the final three innings in relief and shut Coventry down in the fifth and sixth, striking out two. However, Barter and Kyle Brown each scored a run in the seventh to put the game farther out of reach. With two outs and Barter and Brown in scoring position, Josh Andrade notched a two-RBI base hit to make it 7-0 before Devin Hall struck out to end the inning.

O’Connor reached base with one out in the seventh, but Coleman and Palmiotti grounded out quietly to end the game and PAL’s tournament run.

Mental errors and fielding mistakes also had a presence in PAL’s winners’ bracket loss to Cranston on Wednesday. With one out in the second and no score on Tuesday, Cranston’s Jayman Albizu popped up into foul territory on the third base side, but D’Andrea could not make the catch cleanly. Albizu eventually reached and scored the game’s first run.

After Cranston catcher Nick Poulos allowed a two-out, infield pop-up to fall to the ground, Martinez came around to score the tying run in the home half of the second.

That tie would not last long. With No. 10 hitter Cam Harris at second with two outs after his infield single and a stolen base, Jake Palazzo popped Palmiotti’s pitch high above the mound. Palmiotti looked to be camped under it, but was unable to catch the pop-up after the ball broke to his right coming down. Harris scored and eventually Palazzo would too, putting Cranston ahead 3-1.

“We’re not characteristic of making a lot of errors,” Denis said. “That’s not the way that these kids are. I think the weather, I’m not using that as an excuse, but I think that may have played a little bit of a factor into it with the slow grass and stuff like that. But I’m not using that as an excuse.”

Cranston continued its offensive attack in the fifth with more bottom-of-the-order hitting. No. 9 hitter Brett Traficante reached second base on a throwing error by D’Andrea to lead off the inning before Harris drew a full-count walk. With one out, Palazzo crushed a two-RBI double deep into left-centerfield to extend the Cranston lead to 5-1.

Coleman made it 5-2 with a two-out RBI single up the middle to plate Ronnie Minear, but during Palmiotti’s at-bat the game was delayed because of rain and eventually suspended.

Cranston shut the door the next day almost immediately after play resumed.

Palmiotti grounded out to end the fifth after Coleman stole second base, and Cranston responded with three more runs in the sixth. First baseman Tom Napolitano grounded an RBI single down the left field line that scored Albizu, his second run scored in as many days. Harris continued his big day in the last spot of the lineup with a two-RBI single to right field later in the inning to push the Cranston lead to 8-2.

O’Connor singled with one out in the seventh and stole his way to third before scoring on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 5. His teammates couldn’t provide much offensive help, though, as Coleman and pinch-hitter Cam Fielding struck out back-to-back to end the game.

“What we had accomplished last year, coming in second to Cranston, I think that they knew that going in because we had probably nine returning kids from last year’s team,” Denis said. “They didn’t want to let the coaches down with Cranston beating us and then Coventry beating us. Without us saying anything they knew what they were up against.”

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