13's win first two, move into winner's bracket final

Posted 7/15/14

With the weekend in the rearview mirror, the Warwick PAL 13-year-old Babe Ruth all-star team didn’t waste any time establishing itself as a legitimate state title contender.

On Saturday, …

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13's win first two, move into winner's bracket final

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With the weekend in the rearview mirror, the Warwick PAL 13-year-old Babe Ruth all-star team didn’t waste any time establishing itself as a legitimate state title contender.

On Saturday, Warwick got the state tournament underway with a 7-1 win over North Providence. The next day, it flexed its muscles in a mercy-rule shortened 19-3 win over West Warwick.

Warwick now finds itself in the winner’s bracket final of the six-team tournament, opposite perennial contender Cranston, which as been equally as impressive thus far. Cranston won its two games 14-9 over Providence and 14-0 over Coventry.

The Warwick-Cranston showdown is scheduled for today at 7 p.m. at West Warwick’s McCarthy Field.

“I think that we have a good group of 13 players, and one to 13 there’s very little to choose between them,” said Warwick manager Billy Piccirillo. “As long as we play our game I think we can play with anyone.”

Warwick had little trouble playing with North Providence and West Warwick.

Against North Providence, Nick Laramee pitched five innings, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out seven. He also had three hits, plus an RBI.

“He’s our ace, our leadoff batter, our pitcher and our centerfielder,” Piccirillo said. “He does a very good job.”

Blake Roberge came on to pitch the final two innings, keeping North Providence off the board and picking up two strikeouts along the way.

The game was scoreless until the third inning, when Warwick got hot. It scored two runs in the third, one apiece in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and then added two more in the seventh.

Mike Hampson had two hits on the day and Ryan Conley added a big two-run single.

“I think that our bats came alive from the third inning on,” Piccirillo said. “We didn’t get a lot of hits, but we made good use of them. It was the kind of game where a hit here and a hit there proved to be very helpful for us.”

The next day, Warwick jumped on top early and never looked back. It scored five runs in the first inning, tacked on three more in the second and then blew the game wide open with 10 in the third.

The game ended after just five innings, with Warwick only needing four at-bats to get to 19 runs.

Roberge was 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI, Jake Langevin was 2-for-3 with a double, a bases-clearing triple and five RBI, Conley scored three runs and added two RBI, Vincent Tinaro was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI and Robert Thuotte was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI.

On the mound, Will Martino started the game and pitched three innings, while striking out six. Jacob Resendes came on in the fourth inning and pitched the final two frames.

That win was relatively, but it will get harder going forward, starting with today’s game with Cranston. If Warwick is to win, it will put itself one game away from a state championship.

With a loss to Cranston, Warwick would fall to the loser’s bracket final and need to win three games – including beating Cranston twice – to win the whole thing.

“We’re coming up to Cranston now, who’s always been a good team,” Piccirillo said. “They’re always well coached, and we’ll have to play our best to be in that one.”

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