Kilties outlast Northmen
N.S. sees 7th-inning rally fall short
NORTH SMITHFIELD — Skipper Jon Leddy summed up North Smithfield High's sometimes-thrilling, sometimes-woeful 12-11 marathon loss to athletic Division III opponent Mount Pleasant on Monday night with a sad commentary.
His Northmen had trailed the Kilties, 12-6, entering the back half of the seventh inning, but rallied for five runs, three courtesy of senior Jake Forbes' three-run double, not to mention four wild pitches by MP junior reliever Angelo Cazzaro.
He had spent the previous six-plus frames catching prior to his call to the rubber.
With NS junior backstop Devin Albino at first following a fielder's choice, and with two outs, it appeared senior Matt Mandeville – who represented the game-winning run at the plate –
had beat out a groundball to short, but the base umpire called him out. That infuriated Leddy, who believed his kid safe.
“I saw a runner who beat the throw and a first baseman whose foot came off the bag,” he stated. “I asked for an appeal to the home plate ump, and it wasn't granted.
“The bottom line is it shouldn't have come to that in the first place,” he added. “We allowed them their first five runs in the first two innings because of five errors. We just shot ourselves in the foot. We fought our way back into it, but then something else went wrong.
“That's the story of our two losses; we lost to Classical, 65, earlier in the season because of errors and allowing unearned runs. We made a few more mental mistakes in this one … We dug ourselves a hole we just couldn't climb out of.”
With the win, MP improved to 6-1 in league action, while the Northmen fell to 6-2.
Highlights of the Kilties' offense came from junior Francis Rodriguez (4-for-5, two doubles, stolen bag, three RBI, three runs scored); classmate Jaime Pagan-Greco (2for-6, theft, three runs); fellow junior Jerry Perez (2-for-3, double, stolen base, RBI, two runs); and sophomore John Aybar (1-for-2, RBI).
For the Northmen, senior Jake Forbes manufactured a 4for-5 outing with a two-bagger, five RBI and two runs, while junior Adam Blakemore went 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs; senior starting righty Trevor Pascoe 2-for-4, RBI, run); junior Jack Losardo 2for-4 with a run; Albino 1-for4 with an RBI; and senior Chris Matulaitis 0-for-2 with two passes, a hit-by-pitch and RBI.
The Kilties leveled two runs on the Northmen in the top of the first, Pagan-Greco scoring on a wild pitch and Rodriguez on the first of three miscues in the field.
It collected three more in the second when Nelson Perez and Pagan-Greco both reached on errors, Perez scoring on the second, and Rodriguez ripped a double to deep left to make it 5-0.
In the fourth, MP added another when junior Lewis Nunez walked, took second on Brent Gonzalez' fielder's choice and scored on Perez' hit.
Leddy's bunch gained its first run in the back half, when Pascoe reached on an infield miscue, took second on Mandeville's soft single to center and came around on a pass to Matulaitis. At that point,
the bags were still filled when starter Perez forced senior Cullen MacDonald to ground out to second.
NS sliced it to 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth after Forbes drilled an infield single, moved to third on Losardo's two-bagger and scored on Pascoe's opposite-field hit to right.
MP extended that lead to 72 in the top of the sixth after Perez crushed a two-out double and raced to third on a missed throw to the cutoff, then hustled home on Anderson Rosario's single to left.
That merely set up a fourrun flurry for the Northmen in the back half. Mandeville reached on a dropped fly to right, Matulaitis and MacDonald both walked, and Forbes plated them on a bloop single to right. Blakemore sprinted in on Losardo's infield hit, and Albino's bases-juiced “freebie” pushed across pinch-runner Mike deRonde to knife it to 7-6.
A walk and two bunt sin- gles loaded the bags again for MP at the start of the seventh, and Rodriguez dropped a tworun bloop hit to center. Cazzaro scored on a wild delivery and Aybar's hit up the middle plated Perez to gain the 12-6 cushion.
All told, 10 went to the plate in that frame.
With one down in the bottom of the seventh, the Northmen didn't quit. With one retired, Rodriguez struck Matulaitis with a pitch, MacDonald and Blakemore singled to fill the bags and all three came in on Forbes' bashed two-bagger to deep left to make it 12-9. Cazzaro replaced Rodriguez, and he promptly isseued passes to Losardo and Pascoe.
Forbes hustled home on a second wild pitch, and Losardo the fourth of the frame for Cazzaro before head coach Dave Guglielmo chose to re-enter Gonzalez. He caused Albino to ground into a fielder's choice, and that just set up the controversy on what should have been Mandeville's infield hit-turned-out.
“I told the kids afterward that we just came out flat,” Leddy stated. “Sometimes you get games that go a little easier than you think, then you get a big one like this and come out flat. I have no clue why. The good news is we battled back, got some clutch hits in key situations, and we also got a gusty performance by Mandeville in relief.”
After taking over for Pascoe in the third, he went 4 2/3 frames, yielding eight hits, four walks and an HBP while whiffing one. However, he injured himself diving for a pop up in the seventh; after that, he allowed a pass and struck a batsman before Leddy pulled him.
In the end, both teams scored five runs in that last inning.
“It's tough because it's a four-game week, and we really wanted to come out on the right foot,” he said/ “We didn't play as we had hoped.”