The Warwick Continental American 10’s split their weekend games, topping Portsmouth 24-0 in the opening round of the state tournament but then falling to Cranston Western 15-5 in the second round on Sunday evening.

Chase Prata, Nicholas Andruchow and Braiden Sawyer led WCA with three RBI each. Jack Proulx, James Boughman, Manny Loud all added two RBI, while Ryan Santo, Chase DeGregorio, Skylar Hawes and Ashton Wheeler all chipped in one RBI apiece.

Prata got the win on the hill for WCA, throwing 1 2/3 innings and striking out four batters. Boughman came in and pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief and stuck out two.

“It was a good start. It was hot, so it was nice to be able to 15-run rule them and get the kids off the field, save some energy, save some pitching. It was kind of like batting practice, everyone brought it and hit so it was nice to be able to go in there and dominate and be out pretty quick,” said WCA manager John Wheeler of the win.

WCA then went on to face Cranston Western the following day, who beat also took home a big win on Saturday afternoon.

Despite jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning, WCA was not able to hold on as the CWLL bats came alive down the stretch and propelled them to the 15-5 victory, which was WCA’s first loss of the summer.

“We made a lot of errors which is very uncharacteristic of our team. Throughout the whole run we played great defense, we were 5-0 (going into Sunday) and it was because we played great defense and had good pitching. Sunday, we played like 10-year-olds. We made some errors which snowballed into a few extra throws and it fell apart,” said Wheeler of the loss.

Santo led the way at the plate with two hits and an RBI, while Sawyer added two RBI and a hit as well. Andruchow also chipped in a run.

Prata got the start again, going 3 1/3 innings allowing two earned runs and striking out three.

“The kids got punched in the mouth, but they never gave up and they know that now they just have a tougher job. We have to beat Smithfield (tonight) and then beat Western twice so it’s going to be a tough road. If anyone can do it though, we can,” said Wheeler, who also hopes that the loss will be a valuable experience for the club moving forward in the tournament. “We just need to play better defense. (Western) played perfect defense and had 18 hits. Our bats were on but they threw in another pitcher which caught us off guard, and by the time we were settled in it was too late. They hadn’t been in that position before, so hopefully this makes them a tougher team moving forward.”