Toll Gate walks off Clippers
Cumberland suffers 2nd straight defeat
WARWICK — The young Cumberland baseball team sailed smoothly through the first six weeks of the Division I season, but the Clippers hit rough waters in the last week.
After entering the week tied with Bishop Hendricken for the No. 1 seed and a bye into the quarterfinals, the Clippers are now battling Pilgrim for the No. 2 seed and a chance to host a quarterfinal game.
Following ace Michael Bradshaw’s first loss of the season Thursday against Cranston West, the Clippers were back on the road Saturday at Warwick Vets to play a Toll Gate team battling for its playoff life. The Titans overcame a three-run deficit and eventually took advantage of walks and errors to secure a 7-6 walk-off victory when Matt Colvin scored on an infield single by junior Matt Adler.
“We scored six runs and you have to win games when you do that. There’s not one thing you can pinpoint to why we lost this game,” Cumberland coach Jared Cardoso said. “The last game [against Cranston West] there were one or two things you can pin point as to why we lost. This one hurts because we believe we’re better than that team but we didn’t prove it. We just have to play better.”
Cumberland (10-4 Division I) has a chance to atone for Saturday’s mistakes when the teams convene at Tucker Field tomorrow afternoon to finish the home-andhome series. Senior lefty Cam Harthan will likely start on the mound and he was the biggest reason the Clippers even had a chance to win Saturday’s game.
Harthan delivered a pair of booming doubles and a bunt single to go along with three runs and an RBI in the third inning. In the field, Harthan made a pair of spectacular plays in center field, including ranging deep in center to catch an Adler blast to start the sixth inning.
“Some of the catches he made today and the ground he covered out there was incredible. It’s the real deal,” Cardoso said.
Toll Gate (5-9 Division I) is now tied in the win column with Lincoln for the final playoff spot. With Cranston West, Cranston East and Coventry all on seven wins, it appears the Lions and Titans are the only teams battling to avoid missing the playoffs.
The Titans received a pair of runs scored from lead-off hitter Dom Calise, who drew a walk off of reliever Alex Iannuccilli to open the seventh inning. After a fielder’s choice erased Calise, Colvin singled to move the game-tying run to third base. Andrew Wheeler scored to tie the game on a single by Zach Scott.
After Iannuccilli struck out Jamie Luna for the second out of the inning, both runners advanced on a wild pitch. That proved to be critical because Adler reached safely on an infield single that scored Calise from third base.
“You could ignore the Hendricken loss and we were missing some guys for the Pilgrim loss, but this one we let them hang in there and we didn’t capitalize enough earlier,” Cardoso said. “We didn’t do enough today to win.”
Cumberland starter Joaquin Cardoso ran into trouble in the opening inning, as the first three Titans he faced all reached base. The sophomore managed to limit the damage to just two runs – one earned – and proceeded to pitch three impressive innings before running out of gas in the fourth inning.
The Clippers cut the deficit in half in the second inning when third baseman Charlie Tarara hit a lead-off single to right an and scored on an Andrew Mastin single. Cumberland grabbed its first lead of the game in the next inning when Connor Allard hit a lead-off single and scored on a Harthan double. The lefty scored a batter later when the Titans failed to field an Andy Ray grounder.
Cumberland had a chance to blow the game open in the fifth inning when Allard singled and Harthan followed with a bunt single down the third-base line. After a strikeout and a Tarara walk to load the bases, Luke Plumer smashed a two-run double to increase the lead to 5-2.
With a pair of runners in scoring position, reliever Luca Bartletta forced Mastin to line out to short and Tarara was doubled off third to end the threat.
“We were kind of waiting for and waiting for it and the big inning never came,” Cardoso said. “We had some opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on.”
Toll Gate tied the game with three runs in the fifth inning, but Iannuccilli stranded the go-ahead run at second base and then threw a clean sixth inning after the Clippers regained the lead thanks to two Toll Gate errors.
The lead, however, didn’t last because the Titans answered again with two runs in the seventh to secure their biggest victory of the season.