Oakers down Shea/Tolman

COVENTRY – After dropping most of its Division III matches by shutout, the Shea/Tolman Co-op is showing signs of improvement.

Head coach John Jasionowski’s bunch captured two matches and nearly claimed another pair during a 52 loss to Coventry on Monday.

Sophomore Alec Goldberg put up quite a battle at No. 1 singles before junior Kyle Wheeler mustered a 6-0, 6-7 (4), 6-0 verdict, though S/T classmate Dao Thousavanath drilled Adrian Cohen at the fourth spot.

The Raiders/Tigers added another triumph when the top doubles tandem of seniors Mike Silva and Maaz Hussain eked out a satisfying 7-5, 7-5 win over fellow seniors Christian Equitani and Jake Laurence.

Actually, at third singles, 12th-grader Ed DeBrito fashioned a solid battle with frosh Ed Hammer before succumbing, 6-4, 6-4.

The Oakers remained unbeaten in league play at 4-0, while Shea/Tolman fell to 0-4.

** yanked in his previous outing claimed the 10-8 win over the Sentinels and moved to 2-0 on the campaign. “(On Monday), he threw strikes. Against Smithfield, a lot of his counts went to 32, but he worked ahead in the counts here. He got ahead with the fastball, then went to his breaking stuff. “He did a really nice job out there.” Among the offensive stalwarts for the Novans: Senior T.J. Cahill went 3for-4 with an RBI; classmate Justin Mojica 1-for-4 with an RBI and run scored; junior Roger Bissonnette 1-for3 with an RBI and run; and sophomore Manny Quinindongo 1-for-2 with a walk.

To be fair, senior Brendon Aldridge manufactured a solid performance himself, yielding seven hits, all four runs (one earned) and a pass with four strikeouts. Fellow senior Patrick Fleming reached all for times he stepped into the batter’s box, closing at 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs, while sophomore right fielder Jake LeFort went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

“That kid (Adeyeye) held us in check for 4 1/3 innings; actually, he had a nohitter going,” noted veteran manager Tom Sorrentine. “He’s a good pitcher, kept us off-balance. He had three walks, but he also forced a lot (11) of groundouts.

“We’re getting there,” he continued. “In our first three games, we were awful, but we had a scrimmage Wednesday against Moses Brown and played much better. That carried over into our (lone) win against West Warwick.”

The Saints may have fallen to 1-4 overall and in league play, but did muster an unearned run in the bottom of the first. Fleming reached on an infield throwing error, then took third when freshman Braxton Fontaine beat out another miscue. Sophomore Ivan Rosa plated Fleming with a groundout to second, yet Adeyeye escaped the frame without further damage.

Murphy’s bunch didn’t do much through the first two innings, though Quinindongo opened the third with an opposite-field, ground single, and classmate (and No. 9 batter) Geraldi Panigua reached on a fielder’s choice.

Aldridge, however, managed three straight outs to get out of the jam.

He wasn’t as lucky in the fourth, as Woonsocket rallied for a trio. Mojica started the surge with a seeing-eye hit up the middle, then raced to third when sophomore Harrison Blais’ grounder to third was thrown wildly to first for a two-base error. Senior Noah Desplaines scored Mojica with a groundout to short, and Bissonnette plated Blais from third on a blood single down the rightfield stripe.

Aldridge walked Quinindongo to push Bissonnette to second, and the latter tagged to third when Panigua flied to deep center. Cahill’s soft hit pushed home Bissonnette, but Quinindongo was caught in a pickle and eventually was tagged out by Fleming.

Adeyeye’s one-out three-bagger to the left-center gap proved huge for the visitors, as the track star sprinted home on Mojica’s groundout to the hill. He slid feet first just under the throw from first baseman Rosa, and the Novans led, 4-1.

Adeyeye had yielded consecutive walks to Fleming and Fontaine in the third, and those were the only baserunners SRA would have after the first, as Adeyeye had registered 12 of 14 outs before the fifth.

With one down, sophomore and No. 8 hitter Bellamy Gutierrez ruined the hurler’s no-hit bid with a scorched single to left, and – with two outs – Fleming did the same, but Adeyeye fanned Fontaine to end it.

In the sixth, it appeared Rosa had reached on an error when Fleming threw high to Rosa at first, but Rosa – in mid-air – swept the tag across his back for the initial out. Aldridge then took first on a catcher’s interference call, but was thrown out at second on freshman Rob Costa’s fielder’s choice.

Costa moved to second on a passed ball, senior Elliott Vadnais walked and LeFort smoked a hit to center to plate Costa to make it 4-2, though Adeyeye escaped when he covered first on Gutierrez’ groundout.

In the bottom of the seventh, SRA rallied once more, with Fleming roping a one-out hit to left and Fontaine a bloop single to right. On the play, the shortstop Mojica was called for impeding Fleming’s progress, so the base ump allowed him third.

Fontaine robbed second to give the Saints two runners in scoring position, and Rosa’s groundout to short scored Fleming.

With Fontaine 90 feet away from tying it up, though, Aldridge bounded into a 6-3 putout, giving the Novans its third consecutive league triumph.

“We played OK (Monday); we only had one error, and the first few games we had quite a few,” Sorrentine stated. “Now it’s looking like our defense has settled down, and we’re getting pretty good pitching. All we have to do now is string together some hits.

“We’re getting better, and it showed here.”