SPORTS

Warwick Tree Post picks up first win

Posted 6/30/22

By RYAN D. MURRAY

Warwick Tree Post 101 crushed South Kingstown Post 39 by a final score of 11-2 on Tuesday evening during a R.I. American Legion baseball battle at Warwick Vets.

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SPORTS

Warwick Tree Post picks up first win

Posted

By RYAN D. MURRAY


Warwick Tree Post 101 crushed South Kingstown Post 39 by a final score of 11-2 on Tuesday evening during a R.I. American Legion baseball battle at Warwick Vets.

Warwick starting pitcher Jack McConnell tossed six solid innings and gave up two runs (one earned) on two hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

“McConnell threw well,” Warwick manager Mike Fratus said. “He’s one of our young guys. He’s going into his junior year. It’s a big summer for him and a big season for him next year, so this is a good stepping stone for him. It was his first start of the summer. I thought he threw well. He kept the ball down, he got ground balls. We played good defense behind him. He mixed his pitches up well and he pumped.”

Zach Scotti, a Worcester State University commit, came on to close the door in the bottom of the seventh.

The southpaw fanned the first batter he faced, Graeme LaPlante. Tat Kassabian, the second hitter, reached base on an error before Scotti induced a ground ball from Andrew Krekorian, which resulted in a force-out at second base, and then Liam Flynn popped out to the shortstop for the final out of the contest.

“He throws the ball hard,” Fratus said of Scotti. “I don’t know if he’s going to be a full-time starter for us, but he might be our closer. And he comes in, he throws hard. He knows how to pitch. He’s a veteran guy. So, he gets the job done.”

Ryan Fuscaldo started on the bump for South Kingstown and pitched 3 2/3 innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits and a walk with four strikeouts.

Matt Colvin, the designated hitter, led the Warwick bats with a single, a double, and three RBI.

TJ Gormley added to the attack with a double, two singles and two runs batted in, while Josh Lincourt contributed two singles and two RBI, plus a walk, and Scotti, a single, a double, and two RBI.

It was the first win for Warwick in five contests.

“We hit the ball well,” Fratus said. “We finally broke out. We came into the game 0-4.”

“The first couple of games we were missing some of our guys,” Fratus explained. “I brought a few junior players up to play. We dropped a couple games and had a tough loss against Cranston. So, today was a nice bounce back game to come out and hit the ball.”

And everyone joined in on the barrage.

“Top to bottom, everybody hit for us,” Fratus said. “Scotti smoked the ball deep today, hit some good shots. Colvin had a few RBIs, Gormley had a couple, Lincourt. (Brendan) McCaffrey was constantly on base.”

McCaffrey registered two singles on the day.

“Our speed was on base,” Fratus said. “We put the pressure on the opponents and that’s all you can ask for.”

“What I don’t like and what we did well today was, other than the bases loaded in the last inning, we didn’t leave many guys on,” Fratus said. “Where the first couple games, we were leaving a lot of guys on. I’m glad that we came up with some key hits to get some runs in today. It was good and we build momentum. We play two tomorrow in Pawtucket and hopefully we can carry this momentum into tomorrow.”

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