SPORTS

Pilgrim faces Coventry in playoffs

Posted 6/15/22

By ALEX SPONSELLER

Editor’s note: As of press time, the game with Coventry was scheduled to by played at 5 p.m. yesterday.

The Pilgrim softball team held on to beat visiting Cranston West …

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SPORTS

Pilgrim faces Coventry in playoffs

Posted

By ALEX SPONSELLER

Editor’s note: As of press time, the game with Coventry was scheduled to by played at 5 p.m. yesterday.

The Pilgrim softball team held on to beat visiting Cranston West 5-4 in the losers bracket final of the Division I softball playoffs on Monday to punch its ticket to the state final against the defending champion Coventry Oakers.

The two teams traded blows throughout the contest, and despite West pulling within a run in the seventh inning, the Pats and pitcher Alyssa Twomey were able to walk away with the win.

Audra McDonnell got Pilgrim on the board with an RBI in the first inning, but Lyndsey Brandow would hit a two-run homer in the fourth to give the Falcons the 2-1 advantage.

Pilgrim would respond in the fifth inning, scoring three runs on hits from Gillian Brown, Jenna Altieri and Sophia Chevian to go up 5-2.

“That goes back to the experience, I think last year‘s team may have gotten frightened in that spot. They know what it takes to climb that mountain and they realize that to get to where we want to be, there are going to be some gut punches,” said Pilgrim coach Carlos Rodas.

The Falcons looked to tie things up in the bottom of the seventh and nearly did as Brandow smashed another two-run shot to make it 5-4. However, Twomey would rebound to strike out three batters to secure the win. West’s Sam Healy scored two runs on Brandow’s home runs.

“She was our hardest hitter in the playoffs with four home runs. She had a rough regular season and she knew it, but she came to play in the playoffs and put us on her shoulders,” said West coach PJ Bessette of Brandow’s performance.

Pilgrim faced Coventry in the state title game at Rhode Island College on Wednesday night, but the results were not available at press time.

This is a rematch of last year’s title game, and Pilgrim needs to beat the Oakers twice to get the job done. The what if game is scheduled on Thursday at RIC. Rodas feels that the past two playoff runs will help the Pats compete against Coventry, who they recently lost to 1-0.

“Last year‘s experience was helpful because we have been in these kinds of games. That has helped us carry forward. We’ve been in elimination games and we have been in elimination games against Coventry,” said Rodas. “The team that makes less mistakes is going to win. That’s what we have learned playing them eight times in the last calendar year. It’s going to be a good game, it’s going to be a battle, and one team will probably make a big mistake and that will be the game.”

The Falcons wrapped up their surprising run after shocking the state as the seventh seed. West earned a huge upset win over Bay View early in the postseason and pushed Pilgrim to the brink on Monday.

“We just came up a few plays short. We missed a few plays here and there. Pilgrim is a good team, Alyssa is a good pitcher. She didn’t dominate us the way she did the last time, I told the girls to make her work because she has pitched a lot in the last few weeks. The girls battled,” said Bessette, who felt that team chemistry allowed the Falcons to soar down the stretch. “I’m proud of the girls, we were two runs away from making the state championship. They all chipped in, that is what was great about these girls, they really were a cohesive group.”

Pilgrim, softball

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