Lataille pitches Navigant to win
Mount St. Charles graduate leads Navigant Post 85 to 4-2 road win with six-inning outing vs. NEFL
WARWICK – While mighty peeved at the unexcused absences of a couple of players beforehand, Navigant Post 85 skipper Ben Shatraw seemed rather giddy after his troops manufactured (and that’s the key word) a satisfying 4-2 R.I. American Legion Senior Division victory over New England Frozen Lemonade Post 43 on Wednesday night.
Southpaw Alex Lataille, a recent Mount St. Charles graduate who will play at the University of Rhode Island come August, scattered seven hits (without a walk) and whiffed seven through the initial six frames, and Woonsocket grad Jaquan Guerrero earned the save while yielding a hit, run and pass with a strikeout in the seventh.
Offensively, Post 85 failed to muster a single RBI, but took advantage of stellar base-running to roll to 5-4 in league play.
NEFL righty starter Dave Simmons also pitched well, allowing four hits and five walks with a pair of strikeouts in a complete-game outing, but fell victim not only to a pair of miscues on his own Warwick Vets diamond, but a balk by his catcher, Jake Paul.
“What can I say about Alex? What can’t I say?” Shatraw stated of Lataille’s workmanlike performance. “He was fantastic, just phenomenal. He was in a zone, just like he had been the last time he pitched for us. He’s thrown two outstanding games.
“That’s who he is as a pitcher, as an athlete,” he added. “Whenever he gave up a hit or two, he’d battle back. He grinds it out, especially in games like this. That’s a good lineup they have there, and it was important for him to keep fighting with guys on base because that’s what everybody else (in the field) is seeing.
“They want to play hard because he was pitching hard.”
Stated Lataille, now 2-0 this season: “My fastball felt really good. I was shooting the knees and locating well. It felt even stronger than usual, so I went to it more often. The change-up was solid, too.
“What kept me going was we had scored on a couple of real hustle plays, so you have to give credit to the base-runners. Once we got that lead, I just wanted to pitch with more confidence; I didn’t want to give it up.”
Post 43 fell to 5-3 in league action, though its first five batters recorded all eight hits. Matt Boelter went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, while clean-up hitter Chad Mansolillo finished 2-for-3 with an RBI; Dean Streich 2-for-3; Chris Reid 1-for-4 with a two-bagger and a run; and Austin Lamaire 1-for-3.
For the visitors, Austin Forget closed at 1for-4 with two stolen bags and a run; Lataille 1for-3 with a walk; batterymate Alex Denoyelle 0-for-2 with a walk and run; and Josh Mousseau and Guerrero 1-for-3.
After squandering a first-inning chance, the Woonsocketers mustered a run in the top of the third when Forget reached on a fielder’s choice, then stole second. With two down and Sam Hunt in the batter’s box, Forget took off to steal third, and Simmons’ delivery bounced off catcher Paul’s glove. Forget never broke stride while sliding in safely, and Post 85 had itself a 1-0 advantage.
Shatraw’s unit tacked on two more in the fourth, and the surge started when Denoyelle reached second on third baseman Lamaire’s low throw to first. Miguel Raymond then knocked a slow bouncer to short, but Reid fired another toss in the dirt, and Denoyelle scored on anoth- er nifty slide.
Mousseau followed with a hit to left and Guerrero beat out an infield single to load the bags. Evan Masse later bounded into a 4-6-3 double play, yet Raymond hustled home for the 3-0 cushion.
NEFL knifed the gap to two with a solo run in the back half of the fourth after Reid walloped a leadoff double over left fielder Harry Blais’ head. Lamaire stroked a ground hit to center to push him to third, and Reid came in after Mansolillo beat out an infield single to short.
With two runners on, however, Lataille bore down and fanned the side, then did the same to NEFL in the fifth.
Simmons, meanwhile, had retired 10 straight before issuing consecutive walks to Masse and North Smithfield pinch-hitter Marshall Quinley with one out. Forget then singled to left, but Masse was thrown out at the plate while Quinley sprinted to third. He eventually trotted home after Paul jumped out of the catcher’s box before Simmons offered; the home-plate ump declared a highly-unusual “catcher’s balk.”
Ahead 4-1, Shatraw replaced Lataille with the righty Guerrero, who whiffed Mark Halloran for the first out. He then walked pinch-hitter Matt Martinez, and – with two down – Boelter smacked a double down the left-field stripe to plate Martinez.
The reliever, though, forced Reid to fly out to center to end the threat – and the contest.
“After our first game, I told you about how good I felt our base-running would be,” Shatraw noted. “We’re a baseball-smart team on the basepaths, and that definitely showed (Wednesday night) … This is the first time we’ve been above .500, and I want that to continue.”