TIGERS REPEL VILLA NOVANS
No. 10 Woonsocket puts scare in Tolman; Novans bounced to Division II losers’ bracket
PAWTUCKET – Nearly three weeks before Wednesday’s showdown, back on May 10, Tolman High hosted Woonsocket in a Division II regular-season tilt inside McCoy Stadium and came out of it with a satisfying victory.
Skipper Theo Murray was not anticipating the same kind of contest when the two met in a D-II first-round playoff game at Slater Park’s Ted McConnon Memorial Field.
“Woonsocket is a team that plays with a lot of emotion, but it’s not just Woonsocket but a lot of teams once the tournament begins,” Murray stated. “When you win and earn a (playoff) spot, it boosts your confidence and you play better.
“Also, anybody in Division II can beat anyone else on any given day, and it’s that way across the state. You can’t take any team for granted.”
As Murray had envisioned, not to mentioned warned his troops about, the pesky Villa Novans overcame a three- run deficit with four in the fifth inning. The Tigers, however, battled back with four runs of their own in the sixth to eventually seal the come-from-behind, 8-5 triumph.
It may not have been the most outstanding or cleanest outing for junior righty Izaiah Rivera, but he did last all seven frames, yielding 13 hits and five runs (four earned) without a walk. He also whiffed a quartet to help his crew improve to 12-9 overall.
“Nothing was working very well toward the beginning of the game; I was missing my spots, and that’s when they started to go ahead,” Rivera stated. “Toward the end, I started pitching better, getting ahead of the (WHS) batters.
The Tigers will need plenty more of that when it travels to two-time defending state champion Ponaganset for a 4 p.m., winners’ bracket game today. Woonsocket head coach Tommy Brien still is unsure when or where his club will play a losers’ bracket tilt, but insisted he’d know by late Wednesday evening.
Seven of the original nine in the Tolman lineup finished with at least a hit. Senior designated hitter Adam Tremblay led the way, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored, while classmate Noel Hernandez finished 1-for-2 with an RBI and a theft of home; junior Justin Klemanchuck 2-for-3 with a double and run; freshman Lonnie Santiago 2-for-3 with an RBI and run; sophomore Jeff LaRose and junior Bellamy Gutierrez 1-for-3 with an RBI; senior Ethan Bernardo 1-for-2 with a double, two passes, stolen bag and run; and classmate Kyle Depatie 0-for-3 with a walk, two thefts and a run.
Five Novans earned two hits, but they dropped to 8-11 overall headed into a losers’ bracket game. Freshman Nick Strojny, who also took the loss on the hill, finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run, while senior Peyton Carignan went 2-for-4 with a two-bagger, RBI and run; freshman Sean Anelundi 1-for-1 with a run; juniors Hank Blais and Hezekiah Adeyeye 2-for-4 with a run; and sophomore Latrell Lopez 1-for-4 with a double and RBI.
“This is my first year coaching these guys, so making the playoffs is icing on the cake,” Brien said after his post-game chat with his players.
The visitors actually jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Adeyeye ripped a leadoff single to center, raced to third on senior Zach Lorusso’s hit to left and scored when THS catcher LaRose rifled a high pickoff throw down the rightfield line.
On the same play, Lorusso tried to score, but third baseman Klemanchuck gunned him down at the plate.
Tolman knotted it in the back half after Tremblay knocked a hit to left, moved to second on LaRose’s sacrifice bunt, took third on Gutiera rez’ groundout and scored on Santiago’s ground single up the middle. Klemanchuck followed with an opposite-field liner to right, and both moved up on that fielder’s bobble, though Hernandez lined out to short to end the threat.
Starting righty Adeyeye ran into problems in the bottom of the third, and it started with a walk to Depatie, who immediately robbed second and third. Bernardo also received a pass before Adeyeye’s wild delivery plated Depatie and moved the latter to second.
Rivera also walked and Tremblay singled to juice the bags before LaRose’s groundout plated Rivera and Gutierrez’ opposite-field double to right scored Tremblay for the 4-1 cushion.
The Novans, however, answered that with four in the fifth, and it started harmlessly enough – with pinch-hitter Anelundi’s hit to right. Sophomore Tyler Violette sacrificed pinch-runner Caleb Lambert to second, and he took third on Blais’ soft hit to left. Strojny then plated a pair with a bad-hop double (apparently off a sprinkler head) bounced over left fielder Bernardo’s head, and Carignan pushed across Strojny with a single to left.
Lopez followed with what appeared to be a routine grounder to third, but it took a funky “Baltimore-chop” bounce over Klemanchuck’s head and rolled into deep foul territory, allowing Carignan to scamper in with the go-ahead run. Woonsocket, 5-4.
The Novans also did a good job of protecting that lead – until …
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Santiago beat out an infield hit, then hustled to third when Klemanchuck smoked a deep double to center. That’s when Brien opted to replace reliever Violette with Strojny, another righty.
Murray chose to gamble a bit at that point; he signaled Hernandez to lay down a suicide-squeeze bunt, and it was a beauty. Not only did Santiago score with ease, but so did Klemanchuck when Strojny threw high to first, allowing Hernandez to fly into second.
He moved to third when Depatie grounded out to second, but Bernardo walked and immediately took off for second. When Lopez tried to throw him out, Hernandez scored on the delayed steal, and Bernardo eventually came in on an Adeyeye miscue at third.
That made it 8-5.
“It was just inexperience on the squeeze play; it’s that simple,” Brien sighed later. “The momentum had shifted in our favor, then they started theirs with the suicide squeeze. That’s on me; I should have had our guys better prepared. I didn’t show them how to play it properly.”
Noted Murray: “They took the lead on a couple of balls that took really funny hops, but that’s the game of baseball. As for the squeeze, we work on a lot of bunting in practice, so I was pretty confidence Noel could get it down.”
When asked if it was a risk with only one down and the top of the lineup coming to the plate, he stated, “Hey, it’s high school baseball, playoff baseball. If you put pressure on the defense, especially when it may not expect it, good things can happen.”
Rivera retired the Novans in order in the seventh.