Wright shuts down Cougars in 6-1 win
CUMBERLAND — Through the first month of the season, junior righty Nick Croteau was Cumberland’s ace.
But with Croteau unavailable to pitch late in the regular season, Clipper coach Andy Tuetken needed one of his two talented lefties to step up and take over the ace role headed into the playoffs.
Apparently, both senior Zach Fogell and sophomore Brendan Wright want the ace title headed into the Division I playoffs.
Just two days after Fogell shut down Central, Wright allowed four hits and one run along with nine strikeouts in a complete-game masterpiece Wednesday afternoon against North Providence.
Cumberland scored three runs in the third and three more in the sixth to finish the regular season with a 6-1 victory over the Cougars at Tucker Field.
“I’ve found my mechanics again, it was just rust at the beginning of the season,” Wright said after his fifth consecutive strong outing. “Coming back, I just wanted to pound the zone and get movement on my fastball to get ground-ball outs. The weather was perfect today – after those first couple of batters I was in groove and I wanted to pound the zone. My slider was working today, I had it going back door and to the back foot.”
“He just pumped the zone and worked ahead of hitters all day,” Tuetken said. “We’ve seen that from Brendan that last four starts, so this wasn’t a surprise. He did an excellent job for us. From the beginning of the season until now, he’s started to work ahead of hitters. This is his first varsity season, so once he got a few starts under his belt he got going.”
Cumberland (11-7 Division I) will find out its playoff fate later in the week, but the Clippers hope they will be hosting a double-elimination game Tuesday at Tucker Field. Hendricken clinched the No. 1 seed and South Kingstown earned the No. 2 seed. The teams seeded 3-8 will host a first-round game.
The Clippers provided Wright all the offense he would need against Cougar starter Dom Ponaterlli with three runs in the fourth inning. Junior third baseman Joe Molis smoked a leadoff double to center and scored on a double by junior Reuben Hancock. Hancock scored a batter later on CJ Davock’s singled. Addison Kopack finished the uprising with an RBI single to plate Davock.
North Providence (5-12 Division I) grabbed a run back in the fourth inning when Thomas Krikorian singled and scored on a double by Mike Solitto. Wright stranded the game-tying run at first before striking out three Cougars in the sixth and one in the seventh.
Cumberland added three more runs in the sixth when Kopack tripled to plate Evan Marcet, who reached on an error to start the inning. Adam Bertherman scored Kopack with a single and Bertherman scored on a Molis single to left.
“[Fogell and Wright] are pitching their best right now,” Tuetken said. “This is what we thought we had going into the year. We took some lumps at the start of the year, but now we’re playing some pretty good baseball. Those two are going to carry us as far as we go.” Follow Branden Mello on Twitter @Branden_Mello North Providence 000 010 0 – 1 4 3 Cumberland 000 303 x – 6 13 0
Dom Pontarelli, Phil Nasisi (4) and Chris Caracciolo; Brendan Wright and Reuben Hancock.
NORTHMEN CLINCH D-III TITLE
NORTH SMITHFIELD — North Smithfield snapped a three-game losing streak to finish the campaign in a three-way tie for the Division III regular-season title after defeating Valley foe Shea 15-0 in five innings Wednesday afternoon.
North Smithfield junior starter Michael deRonde struck out six batters and allowed just four hits in a complete-game effort.
North Smithfield (15-3 Division III) saw senior Jack Losardo go 2-for-3 with five RBIs and two runs scored. Brandon Conley went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored and leadoff hitter Dan Beauchemin went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Jack LaPage chipped in with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored.
Shea (4-14 Division III) received a pair of hits and a walk from catcher Brandon Ribeiro.
Shea 000 00 – 0 4 3
North Smithfield 119 4x - 15 15 2
Manny Ortiz, Jacob Faria (3) and Brandon Riberio, Ortiz (3); Mike deRonde and Devin Albino.
CHARGERS TOP SAINTS
WOOD RIVER JUNCTION — Nolan Potter hit a two-run double in the thrid inning and Devon White added an RBI double, but that was as good as it got for visiting St. Ra- phael because first-place Chariho defeated the Saints, 12-3, in a Division II clash Wednesday afternoon.
Chariho scored five runs against starter Ryan Sutherland in the first inning, before White doubled in Ivan Rosa in the third. Potter followed with a two-run double to score White and Jake LeFort to cut the visitor’s deficit to just two.
St. Raphael (7-10 Division II) likely needs a victory tomorrow afternoon at Vets Park against Chariho to earn a spot in the playoffs. Potter will start on the mound for SRA.
St. Raphael 000 300 0–373
Chariho 500 520 0 – 12 10 2
Ryan Sutherland, Jake LeFort (1), Cayden Dupras (4) and Paul Sorel; Ben Harrison and Cam Anderson.