Warwick North 11/12s cruising in District 3 bracket

By Matt Metcalf
Posted 7/12/16

The Warwick North 11/12-year-old all-star team has rolled through its competition in the District 3 bracket thus far.

Warwick North kicked off play with an 11-3 victory over Coventry American on …

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Warwick North 11/12s cruising in District 3 bracket

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The Warwick North 11/12-year-old all-star team has rolled through its competition in the District 3 bracket thus far.

Warwick North kicked off play with an 11-3 victory over Coventry American on Wednesday, before mercy-ruling Narragansett on Thursday and Westerly on Sunday to earn a spot in Thursday’s winners’ bracket final.

On Wednesday, it took a little while for Warwick North to get the bats going, but once it did, it cruised to a relatively stress-free victory.

Coventry got on the board first in the bottom of the second when Thane Denton issued a bases-loaded walk to Jacob Langlois to make it 1-0.

However, that was the last lead that Coventry would hold in the game.

Dylan Bourret ripped a single on the first pitch he saw to begin the third, and Aaron Narcavage followed with a double to put runners on second and third with no outs.

Shortstop Domenic Brazeau then knotted the game with a bloop single that plated Bourret, before Colin Lemieux roped a three-run homer over the fence in center field to give Warwick North a 4-1 advantage.

“That was definitely big,” Warwick North head coach Ken Rix said of his team’s four-run answer in the third. “We have a strong lineup, we hit pretty good. We started slow, but the bats started to come around. Once we started to get better looks at some pitches and started to put the ball in play, we felt pretty good.”

That lead would hold up from there on out.

Coventry American tacked on a run in the fourth and fifth innings, but Warwick North exploded for seven runs in the final two innings to put the game away.

A sacrifice fly from Kenny Rix with runners on second and third in the fifth brought home Brazeau, and a throwing error by the shortstop allowed Lemieux to score as well, making it 6-2 at the time.

After Coventry got one back in the fifth, Warwick North’s relentless offense went back to work.

Another error by the Coventry shortstop allowed for North’s first run to cross in a five-run sixth, as pinch-runner Cullen McGrew jogged home.

Brazeau followed by driving in his second and third runs of the game with a single that plated Narcavage and Bourret to up the lead to 9-3.

An error allowed Brazeau to trot home and Kenny Rix capped the scoring with an RBI single that scored Lemieux.

On Thursday, Kenny Rix sparked Warwick North’s offense in the bottom of the first with an RBI single that gave his team an early 1-0 lead.

After Narragansett responded with a run to knot the score at 1 in the third, Warwick North plated 12 runs in the bottom half of the inning to run away with its second game of the tournament.

The big inning was highlighted by a Sean Gallagher grand slam, with Kenny Rix, Denton, Bourret, Narcavage and Chase Pariseau also registering RBIs in an eventual 13-1 win.

Warwick North’s offensive attack continued into Sunday too, as it hit its way to another mercy-rule victory.

In a second consecutive 13-1 victory, Warwick North plated 11 runs in the first inning against Westerly, as Kenny Rix posted two hits and four RBIs in the opening frame and Gallagher crushed a three-run home run.

Warwick North certainly looks like one of the strongest teams in the state, but it isn’t looking past anyone.

“You’ve gotta play the games,” Ken Rix said. “A lot of people talk and say ‘This team will be here, and that team will beat them.’ If you face a good pitcher and you’re not hitting, you never know.”

Warwick North will be back in action on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. when it travels to Tuckertown Park to play South Kingstown for a spot in the District 3 final.

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