Tigers drop ’Canes into losers’ bracket

Matt Metcalf
Posted 6/11/15

Warwick Vets let multiple opportunities to gain momentum fall by the wayside early, as Tolman edged the ’Canes, 5-2, in a winners’ bracket game in Region I of the Division II baseball playoffs on …

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Tigers drop ’Canes into losers’ bracket

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Warwick Vets let multiple opportunities to gain momentum fall by the wayside early, as Tolman edged the ’Canes, 5-2, in a winners’ bracket game in Region I of the Division II baseball playoffs on Tuesday afternoon.

Vets’ offense had a man on second with no one out in the second inning and runners on second and third with one out in the third and failed to plate a run.

Tolman went on to score three runs in the fifth and two in the sixth to run away with the game.

The loss dropped Vets into the losers’ bracket, where it will now have to win three straight games just to make it to the championship series at McCoy Stadium.

Tolman will now await the winner of Vets and West Warwick, who were set to play at Pierce Stadium on Wednesday. Tolman will have to be beaten twice in the region championship.

The Tigers downed the top-seeded ’Canes behind an outstanding pitching performance from sophomore Pete Microulis, who went the distance to pick up the win. Microulis scattered seven hits over seven innings and worked his way out of a handful of jams.

“We just couldn’t come up with that big hit today,” Vets’ head coach Nolan Landy said. “[Microulis] pitched good. He threw well against us and threw a lot of breaking balls in fastball counts. He kept us off balance all day long. We couldn’t adjust to it.”

After four scoreless frames to open up the game from Vets’ starter David Simmons, the junior ran into some trouble in the fifth.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Microulis helped out his own cause, punching an outside pitch to right field to plate the first two runs of the game.

Microulis then took off for second with runners on the corners in an attempt to force a throw.

Simmons stepped off the rubber and threw the ball to second, but the throw squirted away, allowing Steve Otis to score from third to give Tolman a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Vets would finally cash in on its opportunities.

After singles from Jarrod Houle and Jeremy Batista with one out, Austin Lamaire followed with an RBI single that plated Houle to cut Vets’ deficit to 3-1.

With two on and two out, Tyler Dipetrillo then roped a ball into the left-centerfield gap for a double. The hit scored Batista, but Landy waved Lamaire in all the way from first, who was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

With Tolman holding on to a slim, 3-2 advantage, it was looking to tack on to its lead in the sixth, and it did.

Simmons was chased from the game after yielding back-to-back singles to open up the sixth.

David Defusco then came on in relief and surrendered a double off the bat of Joel Negron that scored Nathan Gagnon and Kyle Depatie to make it 5-2.

Shane Kittila drew a leadoff walk in the sixth, but Microulis was able to retire the next three hitters to strand Kittila.

Microulis retired Houle, Batista and Lamaire in order in the seventh to earn his team a berth in the Region I final.

Simmons took the loss for Vets, going five inning and allowing five runs, two earned, on six hits and two walks, while also striking out five.

The results from Vets’ game against West Warwick on Wednesday night were unavailable at press time.

One thing that Vets does have going for it is its pitching depth, so it can certainly win a large number of games in a short time period, but it won’t be easy. Lamaire was to take the bump on Wednesday against West Warwick.

Landy knows that his team didn’t make it easy with the loss against Tolman, but there’s no room for error now. The ’Canes will have to be near-perfect to earn a spot in the title series going forward.

“It’s all hands on deck now,” Landy said. “I just told them that they took away any leeway they had with this loss. It’s backs-against-the-wall time now, so everyone will be ready to go.”

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