Clippers stage late comeback
Cumberland stays alive with stunning late-inning rally
CUMBERLAND — From her center-field perch, Cumberland senior Allie Pina could see her career coming to an end in the sixth inning of Tuesday afternoon’s Division I single-elimination playoff contest against defending state champion North Kingstown.
The No. 8 Clippers trailed by four runs and the Skippers had the bases loaded with just one out against Clipper ace Jocelyn Bodington.
Cumberland extricated itself from the jam and, after a Hannah LaRose three-run double to right in the sixth, the home side trailed by two runs going into the last of the seventh.
After two singles and a sacrifice fly advanced the game-tying run to third, Pina made sure her career wouldn’t end Tuesday. The righty smacked an RBI single up the middle to tie the game and, two batters later, she scored on an Abbie Vallely sacrifice fly to lift the Clippers to an improbable 6-5 comefrom-behind victory at Tucker Field.
“I knew [Bodington] was in scoring position and when the whole bench is jumping for you, you really want to get a base hit,” Pina said. “I hadn’t gotten too many hits off of [starting pitcher Lexi Fagnant] earlier in the game, so I knew I was due. I was ready to drive the first-pitch strike. On the run, I was going no matter what. I was either going to get thrown out or score the winning run.”
“This is as good as it gets for our kids,” Cumberland coach Marty Crowley said. “We haven’t beaten North Kingstown in a long, long time and we’ve had some epic battles with them. Proud is an understatement. Down 4-nothing, we had a big hit by Hannah LaRose to get us back in the game and we hit the ball hard and took advantage of their defense.”
North Kingstown (9-8 Division I) was eliminated from the state tournament after appearing in the last four state finals, three of which the Skippers won. Tuesday, the Skippers received an RBI and a run scored from freshman Emily Larsson, a two-run double from Theresa Gilmartin and two hits, an RBI and a run scored from Meghan Gormley.
The Skippers, however, were their own worst enemy. NK stranded nine runners in the last four innings – including the bases loaded in the sixth – while they also committed four errors, including two in the threerun seventh inning. Fagnant ended up striking out five and allowing four earned run in a complete-game effort.
“We made some bad defensive plays, and like we’ve talked about all season long, when you don’t play good defense against a good team, they’re going to capitalize,” North Kingstown coach Artie Teft said. “We had runners on base literally the whole game, so getting five against them is what I expected.”
Cumberland (11-6 Division I) travel to top-seeded Moses Brown today at 4:30 to start the double-elimination portion of the state tournament. When the teams met earlier in the month at Tucker Field, Bodington held the Quakers to one run through six innings before everything fell apart in the seventh inning of a 7-1 Quaker victory.
“We just talk about next play,” Crowley said. “Moses Brown’s the best team in the state for a reason. We were there for six innings, but we’re just on to Moses Brown, that’s our approach.”
Bodington’s issue when the Clippers lost to the Skippers at Ryan Park earlier in the month cropped up again in the third inning, as Larsson and Gormley worked two-out walks before Gilmartin stroked a two-run double to left field.
The Clippers, who stranded a pair of runners in the second and the fourth innings, ran into more trouble in the sixth when catcher Callie Rathbun and Brooke Hornung worked walks to start the inning. Larsson and Gormley produced RBIs, but Bodington avoided further damage.
Fagnant’s mastery of the Clippers ended in the sixth, as Pina (fielder’s choice), Vallely (single) and Caitlyn Oliveira (walk) loaded the bases with two outs for LaRose. The junior, who was 0-for-2 until that point, looped an 0-2 pitch down the right-field line to score all three Clippers.
“Our kids are all heart,” Crowley said. “[In the sixth] I said we were going to win the game. Let’s get one and we’re going to win. We’re the home team and we wanted to put one on somebody.”
NK grabbed an insurance run in the seventh thanks to a Brooke Hornung RBI single, but that wasn’t enough for the Skippers.
Hailey Ballou (2-for-3) and Bodington (1-for-3) started the seventh with singles. Gretchen Gilbert made it a one-run game with a sacrifice fly and Pina tied it for the first time all afternoon with a single up the middle.
The senior, who is one of three Clippers who had any playoff experience entering the game, scored the game-winning run two bat- ters later on Vallely’s sacrifice fly to center.
“I knew we were going to come back,” said Pina, whose older sister Briana was at the game serving in her capacity as North Kingstown’s athletic trainer. “It was 4-nothing and I was getting a little nervous, but we have a team full of great kids that can hit the ball. We were going to come back – no matter what. This feels amazing. We just needed to get past the first round and it’s going to be a good ride from here.”
North Kingstown002 002 1–574 Cumberland 000 003 3–691
Lexi Fagnant and Callie Rathbun; Dana Jackvony, Jocelyn Bodington (2) and Caitlyn Oliveira. 2B – NK, Theresa Gilmartin; C, Hannah LaRose; 3B – NK, Rathbun.