FRUSTRATING FEELING
Woonsocket suffers 2nd straight Valley defeat
PAWTUCKET – Izaiah Rivera had an inkling rather early Thursday morning that he’d have a good day on the mound.
But this good? He’s not so sure.
“I iced up my elbow and shoulder (Wednesday night), and when I woke up this morning, I was, like, ‘Man, my arm feels great.’” stated the Tolman High junior righthander. “When I started warming up before the game, I knew I was throwing gas. “I felt awesome.” That much was obvious to the fans on hand at McCoy Stadium. Rivera pitched six exceptional frames before an iffy seventh, but he and classmate Justin Klemanchuck’s three-run triple in a four-run fourth helped propel the Tigers to a solid 8-4 Division II victory over Woonsocket.
In his stint, Rivera (now 3-0 on the hill) lasted 6 2.3 innings and scattered six hits, four runs (three earned) and three walks while fanning four Novans. However, before that frame began, he had yielded only four hits and two runs (one earned).
As for Klemanchuck, he closed at 1-for-3 with three RBIs and a run.
Other offensive stalwarts included senior Kyle Depatie (2-for-3, triple, two stolen bags, RBI, two runs); classmate Ethan Bernardo (2-for-4, two RBI); Rivera (1-for-4, a steal, RBI); freshman Lonnie Santiago (1for-3, stolen base, run); senior Adam Tremblay (1-for-2, walk, run); and junior Bellamy Gutierrez (0-for-2, HBP, two runs).
With the triumph, Tolman improved to 7-7 overall and 6-6 in league action. The Villa Novans fell to 6-9 in D-II.
Still, senior Peyton Carignan paced the visitors, going 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles, two walks and two RBI, while junior David Cournoyer went 1-for-1; senior Roger Bissonnette 1-for-1 with a run; sophomore Latrell Lopez (2-for-4); and senior Zach Lorusso 1-for-3 with an RBI.
“Everything was working for me,” Rivera said afterward. “My fastball felt good and smooth, my curve had good movement and my changeup worked well. I’m really happy (about the outing).”
Tigers’ skipper Theo Murray agreed.
“Izaiah was pin-point here,” he stated. “His location on the outside was corner was solid, and he did a very good job early, but I thought the home plate umpire’s strike zone changed a little bit later in the game; we just weren’t getting the same calls we had gotten earlier. He had to come more down the middle, and that’s when (Woonsocket) started racking up the hits.
The Tigers opened the contest in style, as – with one out – Depatie rifled an opposite-field three-bagger down the right-field stripe off of talented junior starter Hezekiah Ad- eyeye, and Rivera delivered an RBI single to right.
In the top of the second, it looked like the Novans could knot it after Carignan smoked a double to deep left, but his teammates stranded him (on two comebackers to Rivera).
Tolman mustered another in the third when Hernandez drilled a triple to the gap in left-center and scored on Bernardo’s ground hit to center, but WHS knifed the deficit to 2-1 in the fourth.
Lopez opened with a one-out infield hit before Carignan walked, and sophomore Alex Figueroa pinchran for him. Senior Colin Godfrin bounced to Rivera, who immediately threw to third to get the lead runner, though LoRusso punched a bad-hop single past short to plate Figueroa.
The frame ended sadly for the
Novans when it appeared freshman Pete Santana had reached on an infield throwing error, and that would have filled the bags. After initially calling him safe at first, and after Murray argued the call, the base umpire signaled the third out.
That’s when Tolman, in essence, put the game away, notching four in the back half of the fourth. Santiago led off with an infield hit and robbed second, and sophomore Jeff LaRose tried to sacrifice him to second, but Adeyeye snared his pop-up bunt try. Tremblay drew a pass and Adeyeye struck Gutierrez to juice the bags, and Klemanchuck produced a huge at-bat. After fighting off pitch after pitch, he ripped an opposite-field, bases-clearing three-bagger, then scored on an astonishing series of events.
Hernandez actually popped his sacrifice-bunt attempt back to the pitcher, and Klemanchuck had drifted perhaps a third of the way down the third-base line. Adeyeye, however, threw well over the bag and he coasted home with ease with the 6-1 advantage.
“It was an outside fastball,” Klemanchuck stated. “I had to keep fighting off pitches; he kept throwing to me outside, so finally I did like Coach (Murray) tells me. He says, ‘Choke up, move up toward the plate and just try to go with the pitch.’ I did, and I finally was able to get a good piece of it.
“I knew I had put it in play and I’d probably get at least a run for my team, but then I saw the right fielder (Lorusso) come in and dive for it. When I saw it skip past him, I turned on the afterburners.”
The Novans knifed the deficit to 6-2 in the fifth when Roger Bissonnette posted an infield hit, moved to second when Adeyeye beat out an infield error, took third on senior Harrison Blais’ ground out and scored after frosh Nick Strojny reached on another miscue.
With Adeyeye at third and Strojny at second (courtesy of defensive indifference), Murray had Rivera intentionally walk Carignan to set up the force. With the bags filled, though, the righty picked off a drifting Strojny for the final out.
Tolman posted two more in the sixth off of reliever Tyler Violette when Gutierrez beat out and error and Depatie was hit by a delivery, and Bernardo clubbed a two-run hit up the middle.
Carignan’s double to the right-center gap plated pinch-runners Tom Gallipeau and Matt Jarret, but the Novans still came up a quartet short.
“I’d never fault my right fielder for going after (Klemanchuck’s) ball in the fourth,” manager Tommy Brien said. “He was being aggressive, and he thought he had a bead on it. It just fell in front of him and bounced to the wall.
“I will say I thought we were gritty,” he continued. “That’s Villa Novan baseball. We always fight hard to the end. We grinded it out. It’s a tough one, sure, but I’m very pleased I got all 19 of our players into this game so they all could say they played inside McCoy. It was a thrill for them.
“That’s a good squad they have over there. Rivera threw strikes and buckled down. I was amazed (because) their whole left side (of the infield) came up with play after play … We’re still in the playoff hunt, but we have to win two out of the three remaining games.
“We have to get back to work.”
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Woonsocket 000 011 2 -- 4 – 7 – 3 Tolman 101 402 x -- 8 – 10 – 3 Hezekiah Adeyeye, Tyler Violette (5) and Latrell Lopez, Sean Anelundi (5). Izaiah Rivera, Ethan Bernardo (7) and Jeff LaRose, Andrew Roy (6). 2B – Peyton Carignan 2. 3B – Kyle Depatie, Noel Hernandez, Justin Klemanchuck.