HISTORY REPEATING?
Lincoln out to become latest squad to win title out of losers’ bracket
LINCOLN — The last five times a team came out of the losers’ bracket to win the Little League state title and advance to Bristol, Conn., Lincoln was involved.
The current group of Lincoln Little League Major Division all-stars hope to make it six starting tonight at 6:30 against undefeated Coventry in the state title game at Darlington American’s Cosimini Field.
Just four days ago, Coventry moved within a victory of the program’s first state title since 2012 with a 3-0 victory over Lincoln. Following Tuesday night’s impressive win over Cranston Western, Lincoln is back in the state final and knows it needs to beat the District 3 champions twice to win a state title for the first time since 2013.
“The message is we keep going and we keep getting better,” Lincoln coach Dale O’Dell said prior to Wednesday’s practice at Albion Field. “We know this is going to be a very close game. I’ve asked the kids to do a little bit more in the state tournament and they did it in the last game. We’re just going to take it one inning at a time and go from there.”
O’Dell has first-hand experience – both good and bad – when it comes to winning state titles coming out of the losers’ bracket. O’Dell’s son, Ryan, was the star player on the 2006 Lincoln squad that dropped a 2-1 decision to Barrington in its opening game before storming back to beat the District 2 champions twice to claim the state title.
Lincoln also advanced to Williamsport, Penn. to play in the 2001 Little League World Series after working its way out of the losers’ bracket and beating Warwick Continental in the state final. Two seasons earlier, Lincoln overcame Darlington American after losing earlier in the tournament.
Lincoln also won the state title out of the losers’ bracket in 2009, but O’Dell was on the Lincoln coaching staff when Cranston Western mercy-ruled his squad twice in 2015 on its way to Williamsport.
And, in 2016, this group of Lincoln all-stars worked their way out of the losers’ bracket to beat Coventry twice to win the state title on their way to the New England title.
“If you get the first one, it’s a big boost and it shifts the momentum to the team that won that game,” O’Dell said. “My son’s team in 2006, they lost the first game and then swept through everybody. There’s been teams that have gone to Williamsport, like the team my son in law was on in 2001, that lost a game, too. It’s how you lose and figure out what you need to improve on.”
While Lincoln is without its ace, Ryan Thompson, because of an elbow injury, Coventry ace righty Tommy Turner will likely get the ball for the second time against Lincoln. Turner held Lincoln to just two hits in Sunday’s 3-0 win, but O’Dell feels his team will be a little more prepared to face the fireballer after dealing with Cranston Western ace Chris Piscione Tuesday.
“We’re going to do our best to make it difficult for them,” O’Dell said. “The difference is we weren’t ready for that type of speed after seeing the pitcher from Barrington. I think we’re ready for that now. We’ve had a couple of days to ramp up our bats and it helped to face Cranston Western’s ace pitcher. He’s one of the best pitchers in the state and throws over 70 [miles per hour]. We have nothing to lose.”
The bigger question – and one O’Dell chose not to answer – is who will start on the mound for his squad. With Donavon Lopez available to pitch Friday’s if-necessary title game and Will Denio unavailable after throwing four innings in Tuesday’s 5-1 win over Western, O’Dell needs a couple of his four renaming hurlers to shut down the District 3 champions.
Zach Evans, Ryan Allen, Michael Bowler and Joey Conti could all pitch tonight. Evans pitched well in relief Tuesday, while Bowler is the most consistent arm, but he’s still recovering from a knee injury. Allen could potentially close the game.
“We need them to do what Denio did the other night; throw strikes and make them put the ball in play,” O’Dell said. “We just can’t give them anything. We can’t give them any free passes and put ourselves in the jackpot. They have some big kids who can hit the ball, so we can’t get into 3-1 counts and 2-0 counts where we have to throw fastballs. We have to be smart with what we do.”
If Lincoln hands Coventry its first loss of the summer tonight, the teams would reconvene in Pawtucket tomorrow night at 6:30 for a winner-take-all contest. If Thursday’s game is postponed, O’Dell indicated Lopez would throw tomorrow and then it would be all hands on deck Saturday.
“They’re a very good team and we’re going to have to play clean like we did the other night,” O’Dell added. “We had to do it twice when [CALL’s Jack] LaRose was on the mound. If we made an error, it could’ve been a different game. We just need to do it again.”