Wright, OS Waves swept in NECBL title series
Cumberland’s Bryant standout had superb summer playing first base for one of top teams in country
SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Once the 2017 NECBL finals were set, a first-time champion was guaranteed. The Valley Blue Sox and the Ocean State Waves had never even made a visit to the final series; the Waves had previously never won a single playoff series.
The new heights for the Waves proved to be too high Tuesday night in Holyoke, Mass., when they lost the continuation of a rain-shortened Game 1, 9-3, and then saw their season end in a 6-3 defeat.
The league’s best pitching staff combined to allow 15 runs in 18 championship innings, but rain during Monday’s portion of Game 1, and defensive miscues were a major factor in a lot of those runs. Seven of the runs the Blue Sox scored in Game 1 went down as unearned, as the Waves committed four errors.
They also committed four errors in the second game, tacking on two more unearned runs to the pile. The Waves two starters – Quinnipiac’s Taylor Luciani and URI’s Taso Stathopoulos – failed to record more than five innings of work in their respective efforts.
Stathopoulos collected seven strikeouts in 4.2 innings, but eight hits brought four earned runs along, giving the Blue Sox a 4-2 lead they would never relinquish.
While the pitching and defense were not up to the Waves usual high-level, the offense can certainly shoulder some of the blame for the two losses as well. The Ocean State bats left 18 men on base in the title series, stranding a particularly painful 10 runners in Game 1.
Bryant’s Jimmy Titus put together a three-hit performance over the course of Game 1 - six innings of which were played Monday night at Old Mountain Field, while the remaining bal- ance was finished off Tuesday at Mackenzie Stadium - but that was the only multi-hit performance to speak of for the Waves.
Titus had half of his team’s hits in Game 1, and in Game 2, it was a paltry five hits for the team combined. The Bryant Bulldog connected with collegiate teammate Chris Wright to score the first run of the series Monday night.
Wright walked to lead off the bottom of the first inning, and Titus drove him home with a two-out gapped double. Titus was thrown out trying to advance to third on the play, but the Waves lead Game 1 1-0 after an inning.
Another of the few highlights on Monday for Ocean State was a web-gem catch by rightfielder Matt Cogen. His college roommate at Belmont, Chas Hadden, hit a bomb that likely would’ve one-hopped the fence if it went uncaught. Instead, Cogen laid out, caught the ball, and went tumbling over the replacement fence.
A run still scored on the dazzling highlight reel play, the last of six runs the Blue Sox would score during Monday’s portion of play.
The first game was delayed a half-hour by rain, and as the evening wore on, the raindrops kept getting heavier. The team watched as their homefield advantage was washed away into the gutters with the heavy rain.
The game had to be called on Monday at around 9:30 pm, with five and a half innings completed. Despite being the top-overall seed and enjoying homefield advantage throughout the playoffs, Monday night’s rain meant the Waves played less than half the series at home.
The sour ending mars what was otherwise a dream season for the young NECBL franchise. They won their most games ever (31), earned their first-ever Southern Division title, thanks to their first-ever playoff series win, and sent five players to the annual All-Star game.