Flying out of the chute
Lopez, Allen shine again as Lincoln throttles East Greenwich in opener of Major Division (10-11) State Tournament
PAWTUCKET — Donavon Lopez admitted to having a case of the stomach butterflies prior to taking the hill for the Lincoln All-Stars’ R.I. Little League Major Division (10-11) Tournament opener against East Greenwich on Saturday morning.
“I was a little nervous because I didn’t know anything about them,” he stated about his foes. “I didn’t know well they had done (in the District III event), or how good they were.”
Lopez may not have had much information about EG, but knew all too well his capabilities, and they more than showed in Lincoln’s 10-0 “mercy-rule” pounding before over 100 fans at Slater Park’s Cosimini Memorial Field.
On the mound, he hurled a superb threehitter with a walk and nine strikeouts, but also paced the offense, going 2-for-3 with two dingers, five RBI and two runs scored.
After drilling a three-run blast in the back half of the third, Lopez walked pinch-hitter Devin Lynch, but closed the frame with two whiffs and a groundout to himself. He needed just 65 deliveries to seal the pasting.
“I just wanted to hit my spots and make it a great game for us,” Lopez grinned after his contingent improved to 5-0 on the summer and clinched a berth in a winners’ bracket. It now face the victor of the Cranston Western-Portsmouth tilt tonight at 6 at this same site.
“I loved the way my fastball was working; they were swinging late on it, hitting the ball on the end of the bat,” he added. “That told me I was throwing some gas.”
Offensively, Ryan Allen finished 2-for-3 with a homer, RBI and run, while Carter Tillson went 2-for-2 with an RBI and run; Noah Campanelli 1-for-2 with an RBI and
run; Christian Khoury 1-for-1 with an RBI and run; Jayden Champagne 0-for-1 with a pair of walks and two runs; and Will Denio 1for-2.
“There aren’t enough words to describe Donavon,” explained Lincoln skipper Joe Conti as his boys celebrated behind him. “As tremendous a baseball player he is, he’s a better person, and the consummate team leader.
“He never gets too high or too low; he has the same look on his face if he strikes out or slams a three-run homer,” he continued. “He had super command of his fastball; you can’t do anything without it, as it sets up everything else you throw. He did a good job of locating and keeping East Greenwich off-balance. He kept them honest by not pitching dead red all the time.
“He mixed his breaking pitches extremely well.”
Righty starter Christian Butera took the loss, yielding nine hits, six earned runs and three passes while fanning one through a 2 2/3-inning stint.
The visitors, though, put a scare into Lopez in the top of the first. He struck out leadoff batter Nick Martin, then did the same to Butera, but the latter scampered to first on the wild pitch. Braydon Rogers immediately singled him to second, and Will Cavanaugh beat out an infield bobble to fill the bags.
The wily righthander, though, fanned both Ryan Fay and Levi Burden to escape.
That’s when the Lincolnites decided to pounce. In the back half, Champgane opened with a walk, and Lopez smoked a 2-1 offering off the right-field foul pole for the two-run “tater.” Allen then stepped up to the plate and pummeled a 2-2 pitch at least 265 feet over the center-field fence to stake a 3-0 advantage.