Warwick PAL bounces Flood in quarterfinals

Posted 8/12/14

With a veteran team in a wide open league, Warwick PAL knew it had an opportunity to do something special in the Connie Mack playoffs. When that opportunity started slipping away last week, Warwick …

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Warwick PAL bounces Flood in quarterfinals

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With a veteran team in a wide open league, Warwick PAL knew it had an opportunity to do something special in the Connie Mack playoffs. When that opportunity started slipping away last week, Warwick held on tight.

Flood Auto, Hendricken’s entry in the league, continued its upstart run when it beat Warwick in game one of their best-of-three quarterfinal series on Thursday. But Warwick came back with a 2-0 win on Friday and a 6-4 victory on Saturday to clinch a spot in the state semifinals.

“Losing the first one, we were just flat,” said Warwick manager Pete Palermo. “We didn’t have any energy, and we were missing a few guys. We played alright, but we just didn’t have any life. After that, I was worried because sometimes you can just fall apart. Long season, you’re burnt out. But we fought back in game two, played real tough. Today, I think we were confident coming in. We had a good pitcher on the mound and the boys came ready to go. It was a good team win tonight. A lot of guys chipped in.”

Warwick is matched up with Chariho in the semifinals, which were set to begin Monday. Results of game one were unavailable at press time. Game two is set for Tuesday at Chariho, with a potential game three back in Warwick on Wednesday.

Chariho is one of several lower-seeded teams that are making noise. The fifth seed from the Southwest Division, Chariho had to a win a play-in game, then upset Northeast No. 1 seed Elmwood Sports in its first-round series, before knocking off Southwest No. 2 Graham Insurance of West Warwick in the quarterfinals. On the side of the bracket, two-time defending champion Cranston was knocked out by Scituate.

Warwick was on the verge of getting upset, too, thanks to Thursday’s game. Billy Roberge and Caleb Wurster combined on a shutout for Flood, which had already knocked off Northwest No. 2 Blackstone.

“Great pitching, and we got the timely hits and moved people around when they got on base,” said Flood manager Bryan Leahey.

Flood got more good pitching on Friday from Alex Hernandez and Wurster, who combined to allow just two runs.

But Warwick starter Bobby Lineberger was better.

The veteran left-hander, a Hendricken graduate, was coming off a 14-strikeout performance in Warwick’s opening-round series. He took the ball Friday and tossed a three-hit shutout as Warwick won 2-0.

“He was awesome,” Palermo said. “He’s throwing very well. He’s an older guy, he’s got the experience, he’s been there before. Today, he was coming back against his old school and he pitched a great game.”

Lineberger worked with a lead throughout, as Warwick jumped ahead 1-0 in the top of the first on an RBI fielder’s choice by Andrew Swain, plating Chris Duchesneau. Warwick added a run in the fourth when Evan Broccoli doubled, took third on a bunt single by Stephen Denis and scored on a fielder’s choice by Joe Paliotte.

Flood threatened a handful of times, but Lineberger was generally in control. He gave up a leadoff single in the fifth but promptly picked the runner off first. After a one-two-three sixth, Brendan Conley led off the seventh with a double, but never got past third as Lineberger induced two groundouts and a popout to end the game.

“We had our opportunities,” Leahey said. “We just didn’t execute. We’re not going to have the big power like some of those teams so our plan all year has been base-to-base. We just didn’t get it done that way today.”

Warwick’s win Friday set up a winner-take-all game on Saturday at Mickey Stevens, and Warwick had the upper hand again. Staked to an early lead, Colton King gave up one run in six innings of work, and reliever Dave Babcock held off a late charge from Flood to seal the 6-4 win.

Flood actually took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but King escaped further trouble with a strikeout. Warwick immediately got the run back in the bottom of the first on a double by Brandon Paiva and an RBI single from Chris Duchesneau.

Flood starter Marc Andrews stranded Duchesneau but wasn’t so lucky in the second inning. Warwick broke the game open with five runs. An error and a walk put two men on and Chris Ray loaded the bases with a single. Lineberger then smacked a two-run single to put Warwick in front. An error and a single by Paiva allowed three more runs to score as Warwick built a 6-1 lead.

King ran with the advantage. A Warwick resident who attends Moses Brown, King cruised through five scoreless frames after giving up the first-inning run. He struck out seven and gave up just three hits.

King had pitched a no-hitter against Flood in the regular season.

“He threw a really nice game,” Palermo said. “He got into a little bit of trouble in the first inning but once he got out of that, he did a great job.”

Babcock relieved King in the seventh and was greeted by a Flood rally. Linden Padien walked and Conley singled to start the inning. After a groundout scored Padien, Matt Sweeney brought Conley in with a base hit, making it 6-3. Babcock got a ground ball for the second out, but another ground ball resulted in an error that kept Flood alive. Justin Gist then had an RBI infield hit to make it 6-4. But Babcock jumped ahead of Will Alfred 0-2 then struck him out swinging to finish off the win.

“Going to a third game tests our pitching and we were missing Mike Broccoli today,” Palermo said. “Our guys stepped up. We stretched Colton out as far as he could go and Dave Babcock came in and battled.”

On the Flood side, the seventh-inning rally was a good way to go out, even if it didn’t yield a victory.

“We had a great group that returned to us from last year,” Leahy said. “It was good to see the kids fight all the way through. Our three captains – Conley, Almonte and McBride – were leaders all the way through and wouldn’t let the guys quit. Brian Cipolla was another unsung hero for us. We couldn’t have done it without those guys.”

The loss ended a productive summer for the Flood squad, with many players hoping to use it as a springboard into next season at Hendricken.

“For us to get this far was more than enough, especially with the group we had,” Leahy said. “We’re always young. The Blackstone team we faced and this Warwick team, they’re legion caliber teams. We’ve got kids off the freshman team and off the JV team. They’re eager to play and get better and they had a great summer.”

Warwick’s summer continues. It’s been a long season, but Palermo is hoping his club can make one final push.

“We played Chariho once this year and beat them 2-1 in eight innings,” Palermo said. “It sounds like they’re peaking at the right time. It should be an interesting series. I like our chances. I think we have a good group here. We have a shot to get there, with a little luck.”

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