Warwick North rallies, pulls away in extras

Matt Metcalf
Posted 7/2/15

The Warwick North Senior Little League All-Stars had a flare for the dramatic on Monday night.

Warwick was looking to stave off elimination in its District 3 double elimination tournament against …

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Warwick North rallies, pulls away in extras

Posted

The Warwick North Senior Little League All-Stars had a flare for the dramatic on Monday night.

Warwick was looking to stave off elimination in its District 3 double elimination tournament against Westerly, and it did, barely.

After dropping its first game at South Kingstown, 4-1, on Sunday, Warwick faced a must-win on Monday.

It trailed for much of the game, but battled back to force extra innings before plating five runs in the top of the eighth to run away with a 9-4 victory.

The win allowed Warwick to live another day, as it traveled to Exeter/West Greenwich on Wednesday for a 6:30 p.m. game, where it faced another must-win.

“These kids are determined, they’ve been playing together since they were nine years old,” Warwick North head coach George Mantaian said. “The bats really came alive and that helped us out. We’re in the losers’ bracket now, so if we lose we’re all done. But the kids are playing good ball so far, so we’ll go from there.”

It wasn’t just the bats that saved the day for Warwick North, though.

Trailing 2-0 in the second inning with one runner on, Mantaian went to the bullpen and brought in Steven Pham to pitch.

Pham would allow that inherited runner to score to make it a 3-0 game, but then he settled down in a big way.

Pham went on to pick up the win, tossing 6.2 innings of one-run ball, while scattering nine base hits en route to silencing Westerly’s bats.

“Steven Pham did a nice job pitching for us,” Mantaian said.

After Westerly starter Miles Temel worked around two base hits in the top of the first, his offense went to work in getting the right-hander some run support.

John Fleming started on the bump for Warwick North and encountered some control issues early, walking the leadoff batter before hitting Brendan Clays with a pitch.

That proved to be costly as Andrew Cummings delivered a two-RBI hit to give his squad a 2-0 lead.

After Fleming was pulled in favor of Pham in the bottom of the second, Jay Kane delivered an RBI single to plate Harrison Chagnon to up Westerly’s lead to 3-0.

Then, Warwick North began to chip away.

Ryan Mantaian got Warwick on the board in the top of the fourth when he reached on an error and eventually scored when Temel fired a pitch to the backstop to cut the deficit to 3-1.

Warwick would then trim Westerly’s lead to 1 in the sixth when a Jadin Genao sacrifice fly scored Bobby Hazelwood.

Warwick would keep its momentum going into the seventh, as it quickly loaded the bases before Pham delivered the game-tying hit, scoring Josh McNamara.

Dylan Bracken then scored the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Ryan Mantaian to give Warwick a 4-3 lead.

However, Warwick North couldn’t close it out in the bottom half of the seventh, with Chagnon delivering an RBI single to make it 4-4 and send the game into extra innings.

But Warwick North wasn’t ready to let the game slip away.

RBI hits by Fleming, Pham and Hazelwood aided a five-run eighth, as it took a commanding 9-4 lead.

It was then able to close out the game the second time around, with Pham shutting the door on Westerly in the bottom of the eighth to secure the victory.

Warwick North didn’t have much time to enjoy its win, however, as it was right back in action looking to continue its momentum on Wednesday.

“Hopefully we can continue this against Exeter/West Greenwich,” George Mantaian said.

Results from Wednesday night’s game were unavailable at press time.

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