Cranston Western rolls past SKA in opening round

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 7/30/15

The District 1 champion Cranston Western 11/12-year-old All-Stars easily handled District 3 champion South Kingstown American, 17-4, in the opening round of the Rhode Island Little League State …

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Cranston Western rolls past SKA in opening round

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The District 1 champion Cranston Western 11/12-year-old All-Stars easily handled District 3 champion South Kingstown American, 17-4, in the opening round of the Rhode Island Little League State Tournament at Warwick Continental Field on Saturday.

Cranston’s momentum slowed, though, as it dropped its next winners’ bracket matchup to District 4 champion Lincoln, 7-2.

However, Cranston showed against SKA that when its offense, defense and pitching are all at their best, it is the team to beat in Rhode Island. Cranston jumped on top early and never relinquished its lead, and used its offense and strong pitching to hold off SKA.

“This is a good group,” Cranston Western manager Gary Bucci said. “They’ve been together now three years. They’re a very, very good hitting team. What’s nice about it is there’s not an easy out. Somebody may be a better hitter with fastball pitching, as opposed to off-speed, so they kind of complement each other.”

Cranston leadoff hitter Caleb Harris started the attack, battling back from an 0-2 count to start the contest. Harris then took the eighth pitch of the at-bat and drilled it over the left field wall to put Cranston on top 1-0. David Marchetti followed up with a one-out, opposite-field home run before Cam Adamec added an RBI double to push the lead out to 3.

SKA battled back in the home half of the first. Zac Zyons walked with one out before Owen Caldwell’s single pushed him to third base. Ben Brutti smacked an RBI double into deep left field to score Zyons, moving Caldwell to third in the process. Caldwell would score on a passed ball to make it 3-2. Cranston pitcher Dylan Demers was able to stop the bleeding when he struck out Sean Gardner and Trey Young back-to-back to end the inning.

Cranston’s offense was there in the top of the second to get those runs back. Jake Bender led off with a double to deep centerfield before Harris reached on an error at first base with one out. Jared Olson singled to load the bases before Marchetti lined a hot shot to shortstop for the second out.

Wentworth nearly escaped the inning, but his counterpart would not let him. Demers helped his own cause with a two-RBI double to left field that brought Bender and Harris across the plate to make it 5-2. Olson and Demers both scored on wild pitches before the end of the frame to extend the Cranston lead to 5.

Wentworth blasted a two-run home run to left-centerfield in the bottom of the second to make it 7-4, but that’s the closest SKA would get and the last time it would score.

Cranston scored 10 unanswered runs from that point on to seal its victory. Harris drove in Bender on his second hit of the day in the third to get one run back. Harris would advance into scoring position on the throw.

“He’s a tremendous baserunner,” Bucci said of Harris. “He’s just a great, headsy kid.”

Olson rocketed a two-run shot out of the park to give Cranston its biggest lead of the day to that point, 10-4.

SKA kept its deficit at 6, but Demers and the relief behind him were too much to overcome. Demers went 3 1/3 innings, giving up all four runs on six hits and four strikeouts and one walk. Nick Mason provided an inning of help with two strikeouts before Olson closed the door. He tossed 1 2/3 innings with two strikeouts of his own.

“There were a couple of key spots,” Bucci said. “There was a key strikeout, there was a key out. There are some kids who are really tough mentally, and we try to stress that at practice. Really, being in games like this [against SKA] prepare you for the mental toughness.”

Just for good measure, Cranston kept at its offense in the sixth with seven more runs. Adamec and Bender joined in on the home run derby with two-run shots of their own before an out was recorded to make it 14-4.

Harris bookended his 4-for-5 performance with another home run, this time to right field.

Marchetti would later score on a wild pitch and Demers would come across on an error in centerfield to give Cranston its insurmountable 17-4 lead.

Cranston Western faced elimination against District 2 champion Portsmouth on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. Portsmouth knocked SKA out of the tournament with a 7-6 victory to stay alive.

Results from Tuesday’s game were not available at press time.

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