Editor’s Note: Warwick Continental and Central Coventry played for the District 3 title on Monday, after the Beacon’s deadline. A full recap of that game will appear in Thursday’s Beacon.

A different Warwick Continental team took the field on Friday night at Continental’s Lou D’Abrosca Jr. Memorial Field. The Major Division all-stars had a different lineup, a different coaching staff and, in the end, met a different result. After coasting through the first four rounds of the District 1 winners’ bracket, Continental lost its first game of the tournament on Friday, an 11-5 setback at the hands of Central Coventry.

The loss, which came in the championship round of the double-elimination tournament, forced a winner-take-all title game that was played after the Beacon’s Monday deadline. A complete recap of that game will appear in Thursday’s paper.

But Continental’s struggles began even before the first pitch was thrown on Friday. Warwick was without the services of pitcher/third baseman James Meizoso, which dropped the team’s 13-man roster down to 12. It was the team’s first roster shake-up of the tournament and, with only 12 players in the lineup for the game, it forced Continental to reduce its coaching staff from three down to two. According to Little League rules, teams must have at least 13 players on their roster in order to have three coaches in the dugout.

If those changes weren’t enough, the team lost first baseman/relief pitcher Tyler Davey to dehydration after the first inning, forcing Continental to juggle its lineup again. The shuffle, while not directly responsible for the team’s loss, clearly altered a winning formula that had helped Warwick to its 4-0 start in District 3 play.

“We made a lot of changes,” Continental manager Al Mann said. “With Meizoso gone we had to have another guy come in and play third and then we lose our first baseman early in the game. We also only had two coaches in the dugout and it cost us Lou D’Abrosca, who has called all of our pitches so far. What can you do? It was a complete meltdown for us.”

Continental got on the board in the top of the first when E.J. Nygren and Joey DeGiulio both singled and Max Lupovitz drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Nygren scored on a wild pitch during the next at-bat before Central Coventry pitcher Stephen Gallagher worked his way out of trouble.

Lupovitz took the mound for Continental in the bottom half of the inning but couldn’t hold the lead, allowing Coventry to tie the score at 1-1 on a walk, two wild pitches and an RBI groundout by Shawn Pacifico.

Warwick got back on track in the third when DeGiulio drew a leadoff walk and Tyler Ekroth homered to left to make it a 3-1 game. Lupovitz kept the rally going with a double through the left side and advanced to third on a groundout by Nate Duffney before Continental’s momentum came to a screeching halt. David Cusack hit a sharp grounder to shortstop and Lupovitz broke for home. Coventry shortstop Tyler Walsh went to Pacifico at first base for the sure out and Pacifico made a quick turn, firing a strike down the line to nip Lupovitz at the plate.

“Max was safe, I know he was,” Mann said. “But it was just one of those things. We had 10 hits in the game but they were all scattered and then we made outs trying to take extra bases. It wasn’t meant to be for us in that game.”

With Continental’s rally abruptly ended, Coventry turned its attention to making up the 3-1 deficit. And they didn’t waste any time. Three singles and a walk helped them take a 4-3 lead after three innings and a four-run fourth, punctuated by a solo home run from Brandon Kenyon and a two-run double by Eric Pesola, helped Coventry break the game wide open.

“The one thing about Coventry is that they keep coming,” Mann said. “And the guy we were afraid of, Tyler Walsh, wasn’t the one that hurt us. It was everyone else. The walks got us in trouble but they got the hits.”

Continental managed one run on a walk and an error before leaving the bases loaded to end the fifth and, again, Coventry more than made up for it in the bottom half of the inning.

Ryan Rotondo, Continental’s third pitcher of the game after Lupovitz and Ekroth, retired the first batter he faced before two walks, a hit batsman and an error opened the door to another three-run rally for Coventry.

“It was a meltdown in all aspects for us,” Mann said. “We gave up too many walks and we made too many errors. The mistakes compounded on each other and instead of trying to fight through it we fell apart. And that’s not our team: we don’t play like that.”

Continental had its chance at redemption on Monday night in Coventry. Both Meizoso and Davey were expected to be back in the lineup, allowing for a complete coaching staff, and Meizoso, who owns a 2-0 tournament record, was scheduled to get the start. But it will take more than those two players for Continental to earn the District 3 championship.

“I told the team that Jimmy is going to need help,” Mann said. “I’m sure he’ll do a good job but we can’t play the way that we did the other night. It’s there for them if they want it but it looked like Central Coventry wanted it more than we did in that game.”

The winner of Monday’s game will advance to represent District 3 in the state tournament. Portsmouth (District 2) and Lincoln (District 4) have already punched their tickets to the state finals while Cranston Western and Johnston National played Monday in the District 1 title game. Western needs two wins to knock off Johnston.

“This is it for us,” Mann said before Monday night’s district championship. “Portsmouth and Lincoln are already in and we really want to join them. We have to bounce back from that loss and play our kind of game. It all comes down to tonight.”