After an 0-2 start to the season, the Cranston West softball team righted the ship for three straight victories.

The Falcons couldn’t get the streak to four.

In the roller-coaster fashion that’s typical of a young squad, West followed up a 10-1 win over Barrington last Thursday with a 15-2 loss to East Providence the very next day.

“We’ve had some good performances,” head coach Jeff Smith said Friday. “Today wasn’t one of them.”

The loss dropped the Falcons to 3-3. They’re not in a bad spot, sitting in seventh place in Division I with wins over several teams that are in the same range, but they were hoping to be done with the wild ups and downs.

“We changed some things around, we were making good defensive plays, getting some key two-out hits to score runs,” Smith said. “We’ve been playing really well for three games, but the bottom fell out today.”

The winning streak began April 10, with an 11-5 victory over Mount St. Charles. The Falcons then beat Chariho 6-2 before the lopsided win over Barrington. Alexis Plumley picked up complete-game wins against the Mounties and Chargers, while Jenna Palmer went the distance for the win over Barrington. Senior Gianna Hathaway had a home run against the Eagles, while Brianna Caputo had a big three-RBI game against Chariho.

East Providence came into Friday’s match-up with the same 3-2 record as the Falcons but wasted no time separating itself. The Townies scored three runs in the first inning, three more in the second and pulled away from there to win in five innings.

“They’re a very good team,” Smith said. “They’re always well-coached.”

Plumley got the start for the Falcons and couldn’t escape early trouble. Ava Atwell had a two-run double with two outs in the first inning and a two-run single with two outs in the second, after a bases-loaded walk to Kristin Lyons had kept the inning alive.

On the verge of escaping both jams, the Falcons instead found themselves trailing 6-0 after two.

“We started getting squeezed a little bit with strikes, and we still have very inexperienced pitchers that are learning the ropes,” Smith said.

The Townies pounded 13 hits, while the Falcons made three errors. Hurting West’s cause further was the fact that the leadoff batter in every inning reached base, with walks doing the job in three of the five innings.

“We just couldn’t get the first strike, couldn’t get ahead,” Smith said. “They came out swinging, we made some bad errors, and that never helps. That was the start of it.”

The Falcons touched up Townies starter Michaela Kelly for two runs in the second. Stephanie Menard and Cassie Manni started the rally. Nicole Bucci brought Menard home on a fielder’s choice and Alyssa Ragosta plated Manni with a groundout.

But West didn’t get much else. Kelly stranded runners on second and third in the second inning, induced a double play to end the third and worked her way out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth.

“We scored two runs in the bottom part of the order and we had the bases-loaded a couple of times,” Smith said. “Where we were consistent before was in getting that two-out hit, the big hit to drive in runs. We didn’t get those today.”

The Townies added four runs in the third and one in the fourth before putting the mercy rule into play with four runs in the fifth.

Atwell had two hits and five RBI to lead the Townies while Jordan Farnsworth had four hits from the leadoff spot. Manni had two hits to lead the Falcons, while Hathaway, Menard and Ana Viccione had one each.

Smith hopes the Falcons can move forward.

“Sometimes this kind of game works out to the best,” he said. “It’s a learning experience.”

The Falcons were scheduled to play defending state champion Lincoln on Tuesday, with results unavailable at press time. They will visit Woonsocket on Thursday at 4 p.m.

“We’ll regroup,” Smith said. “We’ve got Lincoln so it gets tougher. We’ll try to bear down and focus, see if we can string some hits together and cut down on the errors.”