CNLL survives Burrillville comeback to win title
Cumberland National makes 2 superb defensive plays late
BURRILLVILLE — The Cumberland National 10-yearold all-stars struggled defensively for long stretches of Saturday afternoon’s District 4 title game against Burrillville at Peck Field.
But, with its lead down to a single run and the go-ahead run on first base in the sixth inning, CNLL made two superb defensive plays to secure the district title. First, talented third baseman Ben Jahnz made an athletic sliding catch along the fence to set down dangerous leadoff hitter Cam Potter.
One pitch later, Logan Gelinas connected with a Kasin Rose pitch, but the ball was caught in centerfield to secure Cumberland National the district title with a 7-6 victory over Burrillville.
“They’re a great team and we knew they were going to come out ready to play today and we told our guys we had to be mentally tough the whole game,” CNLL coach Gary Lamora said. “The difference between us winning and losing this game is we were mentally tough for all six innings.
“One of the things we preach to the boys is errors are part of the game. We know they’re going to happen, but we just don’t want to make an error on top of another error.”
CNLL will face the champion of District 3, either Coventry or South Kingstown, in its first game of the state tournament Saturday at 7 p.m. at East Greenwich’s Cragen Field. Lamora said he will approach the state tournament the same way he approach the district tournament, where his team went 4-0.
“Oh my God, it’s an amazing, amazing feeling. I’m just so incredibly proud of these boys,” Lamora said.
“We’re going to take the same approach in districts to states next week; game by game and practice by practice. We’ll see what we can do.”
For Burrillville coach Charlie DiChiaro, Saturday’s game was a success considering CNLL defeated Burrillville, 11-1, in the teams’ previous meeting in the losers’ bracket final. Burrillville led 2-0 and 5-4 in Saturday’s contest and received three runs scored from Jack DiChiaro. Cam Laramee went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a pair of runs scored.
“It was a great game today,” DiChiaro said. “The kids battled back all game and we practiced hard all week for this game. At the end of the game against them last week, one of our coaches said to them, ‘We hope to see you next week.’ Their coaches are phenomenal and we’ve never had a problem with those guys.
“The way we battled back is great for these kids at this age. Falling behind (4-2) after getting beat 11-1 by the same team, it’s easy to let in.”
After CNLL starter Matt Maher earned two quick outs in the opening inning, Burrillville took advantage of two errors to score the game’s first two runs. DiChiaro walked and then Laramee reached on an error. Both runners scored later in the inning on another error.
Cumberland National answered with two runs of its own in the first. Rose and Patrick Leonard started the inning with singles. Jahnz grounded out to score Rose and Maher grounded out to score Leonard.
“I think that helped set the tone early for us that we were ready to play,” Lamora said. “That was what I needed to see for the boys, that we going to come back and not just wilt when they put a couple of runs on the board early in the game.”
Marcus Gomes delivered an RBI single and a run in the second to put CNLL ahead for the first time, but Laramee smacked a two-run double in the third inning. Laramee put his team ahead for the second time on a Daniel Delmonico single.
“Our hitting was the biggest difference between the two games. We hit the ball well,” DiChiaro said. “We did less defensive practice during the week and we did more battling practice. We threw them more curveballs.”
CNLL answered with three runs of its own in the fourth inning. Leonard produced a tworun single to score Luke Smolan and Gomes, while Jahnz added an RBI on a fielder’s choice.
After Burrillville cut its deficit in half on a DiChiaro run in the fifth, the hosts had a chance to extend the tournament by a day when Rose committed an error and walked Riley Hebert in the sixth. But, the pint-sized righty secured the two-inning save thanks to a little help from his defense.
“Never play for tomorrow,” Lamora said. “We were here today, we had the lead today and that’s all we were thinking about.”
“The kids battled back all game and we practiced hard all week for this game. At the end of the game against them last week, one of our coaches said to them ‘We hope to see you next week.’ Their coaches are phenomenal and we’ve never had a problem with those guys.” – Burrillville coach Charlie DiChiaro