CALL’s patience pays off
State champs feasted on Western’s bullpen
JOHNSTON — When Cumberland American righty Jack LaRose threw the first pitch of Friday night’s Little League state title game, CALL and Cranston Western had identical pitching resources to navigate through two potential title games.
By the third inning of Saturday night’s winner-take-all contest at Kennedy Field, the District 1 champions were out of pitching, while CALL’s Charlie Tarara was cruising along.
“My whole approach has been the same all year in all-stars,” Cumberland American coach Tony Tarara said. “You have to work the pitching. You have to make sure you get their pitch count high, get their aces out and do damage as we get further into the game.
“We really start to get going in the third or fourth inning. Their pitchers get gassed and my little guy (Charlie Tarara) hung on a little bit and lasted longer than their starter did.”
After South Kingstown’s Phoenix Sward and Cranston Western’s Perry Gaudreau both threw five-inning complete games last week in identical 2-0 CALL wins, in the state final the District 4 champions reverted back to the offensive
“You have to make sure you get their pitch count high, get their aces out and do damage as we get further into the game.” — CALL coach Tony Tarara
approach that has served them so well.
In the district tournament, CALL ran into talented starters like Burrillville’s Carlo Acquisto, Smithfield’s Matt Belleavoine and Scituate/Foster’s Demetri Sampalis. CALL didn’t hit any of the three especially hard, but they drove the starters from the game early and feasted on each team’s bullpen.
That proved to be the case again in Saturday night’s 14-4 state title victory and it all started in Friday night’s 9-6 defeat in seven innings. Gaudreau, who overpowered CALL with his fastball in the first meeting, gave up six runs before reaching the maximum 85 pitches in the fourth inning.
“We already saw Perry Gaudreau in the first game and we knew on Friday we were going to have to draw some walks,” said Joey Cote, who hit a pair of home runs in the defeat. “We haven’t seen anyone throw that hard. The fastest we’d seen was probably 68 from (Acquisto). We were all over him and we just had to time him.”
Chris Piscione wound up earning the win for Western after throwing three scoreless innings to end the game, but that meant he wasn’t eligible to start Saturday’s game. That honor fell to Jake Snowling, who shut out Riverside in the tournament’s opening game two Saturday’s ago.
Western coach Gary Bucci needed Snowling to pitch deep into the game, but that plan fell apart after a 46-pitch opening inning. Cote drew a five-pitch walk before LaRose fought off a number of pitches to earn a walk. By the time Snowling walked off the mound in the second inning of a 6-4 game, he’d already thrown 72 pitches to Tarara’s 40.
“We really focused on hitting the last few practices,” Charlie Tarara said. “In practice it’s usually about fielding, but we’ve really started to work on our hitting. It paid off.”
“Charlie came in and said we were ready to hit,” Tony Tarara said. “He was actually helping me get the other guys up.”
Snowling was driven from the title game after giving up a two-run double to Tarara with one out in the third. Bucci turned to a pair of relievers to keep the game close, but J.J. Sanzi and Andy Ray both came through with RBIs in the inning to extend the lead to eight. Western used its fourth pitcher of the night in the fourth inning, but Nick Masse struggled to throw strikes and he hit Sanzi and Dante Figueira to end the game.
If CALL is going to follow in the footsteps of the 20111 and 2014 state champions and reach Williamsport, Penn., the squad is going to have to get into the bullpens of the region’s five other state champions in Bristol, starting Sunday night against the new Hampshire champion. Goffstown and Concord meet Tuesday night for the right to face CALL.
Tarara for MVP
LaRose hit three runs, pitched a nohitter in the tournament opener against South Kingstown and played superb defense. Cote finally gave CALL some offense out of the No. 3 hole, belting a pair of home runs in Friday’s game and scoring two runs in Saturday night’s win.
But, the unofficial tournament MVP has to be Tarara, who handed Western its only two losses of the summer. After allowing just four hits in 5.2 innings of scoreless ball in the winners’ bracket final, Tarara allowed three earned runs in a four-inning complete game Saturday night.
“He’s a great pitcher. He was hitting his spots, keeping them off the bases,” Sanzi said of his battery mate.
Offensively, he drove in the gamewinning run in last Sunday’s 2-0 win and he also scored three runs and drove in a pair Saturday night.
New players make big difference
The core of this season’s state championship team – Sanzi, Tarara, Cote, Andrew Mastin, Figueira and George Sukatos – were on last season’s 11-yearold state title team. But, this season’s state title wouldn’t have been possible without three additions.
Scotty Penney, who lost in last season’s Major Division final to Lincoln, provided a spark in the leadoff spot and also played superb infield defense.
LaRose, who was a standout on the 10-year-old team last season, owns a 40 record in six starts and he also hit three home runs in the state tournament. Fellow 11-year-old Ray lengthened the lineup and scored the game-winning run in the winners’ bracket final.
“This team is definitely better than it was last year,” Tony Tarara said after his team’s first game of the summer against Burrillville.
Bristol connection
It might sound hard to believe that any player on the 2017 CALL squad would share the field with a 2014 squad member, but Cote and 2014 World Series participant Trey Thibault both played on the same North Cumberland Middle School team.
“I played with him on the middle school baseball team and he was like a big brother to me,” Cote said. “I look up to him.”
Andre or Andrew?
It started by accident in last summer’s 11-year-old state tournament in Wickford and will continue until Cumberland American’s summer finishes. When Mastin’s name is called by the public-address announcer, he’s is called Andre Mastin instead of Andrew.
Mastin said the mistake brought the team luck in last season’s state final against Warwick North, so the superstition continued into 2017.