Lemieux's quiet dominance keys Warwick North title

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 8/16/16

Warwick North pitcher Colin Lemieux doesn't have much to say after baseball games. He does all of his talking on the field, where he was 2-0 with a 1.78 ERA in two contests during Warwick's run to a New England

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Lemieux's quiet dominance keys Warwick North title

Posted

Warwick North pitcher Colin Lemieux doesn’t have much to say after baseball games.

He does all of his talking on the field, where he was 2-0 with a 1.78 ERA in two contests during Warwick’s run to a New England Regional title. Lemieux was North’s most intimidating force on the mound and at the plate.

Lemieux, who stands in at 5 feet, 10 inches, struck fear into opponents throughout the tournament and with good reason. His imposing stature and top-flight power made him a menace when he stepped up to bat, while his pitching proved vexing for the best offenses to hit.

Take Fairfield American, the team Warwick North defeated Saturday afternoon, 5-1, to capture the championship. The Connecticut representative had scored 28 times over the past two days to roll past Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Lemieux held them to a single run, and it was unearned, even hitting 72 mph on the gun. In the first inning, though, it looked like his appearance might be shorter than he thought. He fouled off a pitch, but came up limping and fell to the ground in pain, clutching his left knee area.

After assistance from the medical staff, he was back up with the lumber in his hands. North averted disaster, as it turns out he ripped a scab off his knee on the backswing.

“I was just hoping he didn’t twist a knee,” Warwick North manager Ken Rix said. “Obviously, I wasn’t thinking about the game. I was hoping he didn’t blow his knee out. I didn’t see how he twisted it, I assumed he twisted it. They came out there with some stuff to numb it, patched it up and he was fine.”

It was back to work for Lemieux after that. The lofty right-hander punished Connecticut over his five innings of work, allowing just six hits and one walk, working through the heat of a 93-degree afternoon that felt like 108.

It wasn’t just his pitching that hurt the opposition.

His reputation to scorch the ball may have preceded his prowess on the bump. He got into opponents’ heads all season, working intentional walks to establish fruitful situations for cleanup hitter Kenny Rix. This included a free pass with the bases loaded against Massachusetts, which put the tying run 90 feet away.

Rix then blasted a walkoff grand slam on the first pitch to send North into the championship round. Even when it wasn’t a direct result of his bat, Lemieux’s impact was felt.

Connecticut wouldn’t try such tactics, looking to pitch Lemieux outside. It worked the first time, earning a rare strikeout.

Lightning didn’t strike twice, though. In Lemieux’s second at-bat, a pitch leaked inside and he uncorked a 2-run home run around the left field pole. He was doing it all himself, and it was all the insurance he would need.

“It was great,” Lemieux said succinctly of his home run.

For good measure, he ripped an RBI double down the left field line in the fifth inning to give a little more breathing room to his reliever, Cullen McGrew.

Lemieux had few chances to bat leading up to his MVP-caliber performance in the title game, but even he wasn’t surprised.

“Not really,” Lemieux said of whether he was surprised at seeing so many pitches. “I was expecting to get pitched to this whole tournament because they’re all really good teams, but at the end of the day, at least we won.”

That’s been Lemieux’s attitude throughout the all-star season, too. From scoring the game-winning run in the state title game, to being the most feared player in Bristol, he hasn’t been one to take credit for it.

He did not have much to offer after shutting down South Kingstown to win districts. He walked off the mount quietly after 5 1/3 innings against Scarborough (Maine), which had torn teams asunder to the tune of 57 total runs across four games in states. Lemieux yielded just two in his appearance, pitching as effectively as he as all season.

He’s usually quiet after these stellar performances, but he was, and continues to be, loud when Warwick North needs him the most.

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