Collette’s season comes to an end
Aldridge pitches well in playoff defeat to Warwick NEFL Post 43
PAWTUCKET – Compared to Thursday night’s disastrous 10-run blowout loss to New England Frozen Lemonade Post 43, Collette/ Riverside Post 10 assembled a terrific outing in the second game of the R.I. American Legion Senior Division Tournament best-of-three playoff series at Ted McCo- nnon Memorial Field on Friday.
Righthander Brenden Aldridge closed with a complete-game six-hitter, yielding a half-dozen walks and fanning four, and – unlike the night before, when it had issues making the easiest defensive plays – the on-field unit flashed a lot of leather.
The only problem: Hitting was at a premium, and Collette managed only three off righty starter Matt Martinez, leaving Post 10 mourning a tough-totake 1-0 defeat. That ended its campaign at 11-13 overall.
After scattering only three hits through the initial six frames, Aldridge allowed Evan O’Connor a leadoff triple to deep right in the top of the seventh, and Max Prescott followed with an RBI two-bagger to nearly the same spot.
Prescott, who was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into another triple, then allegedly heckled the Riverside team bench while jogging back to his dugout. Post 10 assistant Ken Aldridge immediately took offense to the alleged cuss words stated and told the player, in essence, to “zip it.”
That caused a minor scuffle near the third-base line, and the home-plate ump issued warnings to both benches.
The younger Aldridge, who’s about to enter his sophomore year at Franklin Pierce University, escaped the frame, but the damage had been done. Martinez, who didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight, registered three straight outs in the back half to clinch the opening playoff set.
“I’m emotional; it’s hard to describe what I’m feeling right now,” he explained. “It just ended, and it was a 1-0 loss, which is tough. Plus they scored their lone run in the seventh. It’s really hard losing that type of game.”
As for struggling with his command through the first four innings or so – he walked four in that time – he continued to battle.
“I think I just wasn’t finishing; that’s why I was constantly up in the zone,” he said. “I wasn’t getting low enough. I wasn’t bending, and it was very frustrating. At one point, I felt I couldn’t throw a strike, but then I started to. That’s when they’d hit the ball and we made the plays behind me. I will say I thought my off-speed pitches helped me get the ball down.”
Stated skipper Dylan Boisclair: “Obviously, it didn’t end with the result we had wanted, but the guys definitely played with the passion we’ve been looking for all year, and played with for most of it. As for Brenden, I thought he really stepped up for us in this one, not only as our pitcher but a team leader as well, but he’d been doing that all year.”
As for the mini-rhubarb that occurred after O’Connor scored, he stated, “I don’t know what it was, but it sparked our bench. In our second game of the regular season, their words exchanged between ( NEFL and our guys), but that’s what playing with passion brings. Things happen in the heat of the moment.”
Aldridge gave up three walks in the first three innings, but avoided any serious trouble. Dylan Palmiotti started the fourth with a ground single up the middle, but Aldridge made a nice stop of a Josh Coleman comebacker, as did shortstop Peter Microulis on the play at second. When Coleman tried to rob second, batterymate Nick Lemire threw him out.
Aldridge recorded the final out by whiffing Marcus Alexander.
Riverside No. 8 batter Addie Walker had broken up Martinez’s no-hit bid in the third, but the latter retired seven straight before Andrew Rudecino (a Times2 graduate) beat out a two-out infield single.
In the back half of the sixth, SRA senior-to-be Jake LeFort ripped a high fly to right, and the wind kept taking it.
It eventually landed just shy of the fence and went for a double.
“It was a fastball, I’d say chest level, and when I hit it, I saw it kept going,” he said. “I thought it had a chance, but it fell short. When I got to second, I was thinking, ‘Maybe we can get one here!’ I knew I had a good group of guys coming up behind me.”
It appeared Aldridge would help himself when he drove a high liner toward the right-center gap, but second baseman Kevin Cox made a stellar leaping grab. Lemire then grounded to the same fielder to end it.
That merely set up NEFL’s game-winning seventh.
“I think we had a good year overall,” Boisclair stated of his first at the helm, but has had plenty of help from Dan Silva and the elder Aldridge. “Our goals at the start were to make the playoffs and hopefully get on a roll. We figured if you get hot at the right time, who knows what can happen?
“We made the tournament, but fell a little shy.”
N.E. Frozen Lemonade Post 43 000 000 1 – 1 – 6 – 0 Collette/Riverside Post 10 000 000 0 – 0 – 3 – 1 Matt Martinez and Marcus Alexander. Brenden Aldridge and Nick Lemire. 2B – Max Prescott, Jake LeFort. 3B – Evan O’Connor.