Warwick PAL Connie Mack easily handles West Warwick

Matt Metcalf
Posted 7/23/15

The Warwick PAL Connie Mack squad has been putting together an impressive summer, as it entered its game against West Warwick at McCarthy Field on Monday night with a 5-2 record.

Warwick would …

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Warwick PAL Connie Mack easily handles West Warwick

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The Warwick PAL Connie Mack squad has been putting together an impressive summer, as it entered its game against West Warwick at McCarthy Field on Monday night with a 5-2 record.

Warwick would pick up its sixth win in a no-doubter that saw it lead from start to finish, rolling past West Warwick 8-3.

PAL jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first, touching up West Warwick starter Matt Grenier for three runs on five hits to put the home team in a three-run hole out of the gates.

Left fielder Mike Broccoli and pitcher Steve Foster led off the game with back-to-back singles.

And, after Brandon Paiva’s sacrifice bunt attempt allowed West Warwick to get the lead runner at third, cleanup hitter Bryant Palermo brought home Foster with a sharply struck RBI single.

Backstop Evan Broccoli followed with a double into the gap that plated Paiva and Palermo to up Warwick’s lead to 3-0.

According to Warwick manager Pete Palermo, those players at the top of the lineup have produced since the start of the summer, and have continued their torrid pace.

But on Monday, Warwick took a different approach, taking a commanding lead early. Pete Palermo indicated that his team has typically started games slowly, having to come back in the later innings.

“We’ve been starting slow in all of our games and getting behind a lot,” Pete Palermo said. “So we try to preach to try to jump out to a good start, and we did today. We got some timely hitting and we ran the bases well.”

Grenier would strike out the first two Warwick hitters that he faced in the second, but then Warwick’s lineup turned over, and it would wreak havoc once again.

Mike Broccoli drew a two-out walk to bring Foster to the plate, who would give himself some run support, doubling home Mike Broccoli with a fly ball over the centerfielder’s head to make it 4-0.

West Warwick would finally get on the board in the third, cutting its deficit in half with two runs courtesy of an RBI groundout from Tom Pecchia and a passed ball that allowed Colby Knott to score.

But Warwick would quickly get those two runs back.

In the top of the fourth with runners on second and third and two outs, Matt Hopper got Mike Broccoli to strikeout on a pitch in the dirt. The pitch was blocked by catcher Jake Woodside, but his throw down to first would get by the first baseman, allowing Rob Fredette and Chris Ray to score, pushing Warwick’s lead back out to 4.

Over the next two innings, Foster would shut down West Warwick, striking out four without yielding a run.

West Warwick would plate one in the sixth on a double by Hopper that scored Kyle Kortick to make it a 6-3 game, but that would be all that Foster would allow.

Foster picked up the win on the bump, going six strong innings while fanning nine and giving up three runs.

The fact that Foster could battle and give Warwick six innings was huge, as it has several games approaching over a short amount of time.

Length out of the starting rotation is certainly welcomed at this point in the summer.

“Right now we needed that,” Pete Palermo said of Foster’s effort. “With the way that our pitching is lined up, we were hoping that he could give us five or six.”

Once again Warwick’s offense would answer in the next half inning.

The middle of the order continued to give West Warwick headaches, with Bryant Palermo cracking a two-RBI single to right-centerfield that brought Paiva and Foster home to up Warwick’s lead to 8-3. Bryant Palermo went 2-for-4 with three RBIs on the evening.

Foster and Evan Broccoli each finished with a pair of hits as well.

Dan Reph would come on to close out the game for Warwick, working a 1-2-3 seventh frame.

With roughly half of its season remaining due to rainouts, Warwick is happy with where it’s at right now.

But it won’t get complacent because Pete Palermo knows that there are plenty of games left against quality opponents.

“We’re playing well, but there are a lot of games coming up against division opponents – two against Hendricken, one against East Greenwich and one against Scituate,” Pete Palermo said. “But we’re battling and that was a really good start for us today.”

PAL was scheduled to host Coventry at Mickey Stevens at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, but results were unavailable at press time.

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