West’s pitching falters in loss to Cumberland

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 5/12/16

It was a battle between two of Division I’s top teams, but the result didn’t show it.

Cumberland (10-2) took care of business against Cranston West (8-4) on Monday night at Brayton Field, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

West’s pitching falters in loss to Cumberland

Posted

It was a battle between two of Division I’s top teams, but the result didn’t show it.

Cumberland (10-2) took care of business against Cranston West (8-4) on Monday night at Brayton Field, scoring eight runs in the second and fifth innings en route to a 19-2 blowout victory. Maddi Leite went 4-for-4 with a grand slam and six RBIs, and No. 9 hitter Miranda Veliu went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and two RBIs.

Including playoffs, West has allowed 37 runs in its last two games against Cumberland.

Mackenzie Beyer and Danielle Carmody had the only RBIs for West, which had a quiet first inning before the Clippers’ bats caught fire.

Falcons’ starter Camryn Ricci allowed one Clipper to reach in the first inning before forcing a groundout to end the threat, but Cumberland wasn’t held off for long. The second frame began with back-to-back singles from Katerina Kent and Emily Anderson, before Katie Calabro belted a 3-run home run over the right center field wall to open the scoring.

“We couldn’t get any pitching tonight,” West manager Jeffrey Smith said. “Everything was just coming in flat and they were teeing off on us. Hats off to Cumberland, they’re a really good team. They’re in the top tier in the division. They came prepared to hit.”

Ricci got pitcher Jocelyn Bodington to ground out, but allowed Veliu to reach on a bunt single. That would prove costly as Taylor Fay sent a single into left field to put two runners on. Samantha Jalbert notched her first RBI of the night when she put a base hit up the middle to score Veliu. Fay and Jalbert would come around after Leite scorched a double down the left field line to make it 6-0.

Cumberland batted around, and Ricci couldn’t set Kent down the second time she saw her, either. She crushed a two-out dinger over the center field wall to extend the lead to 8-0.

West struggled to produce from there, notching only five hits for the rest of the game.

“It was definitely something, that we got out of our game in a hurry,” Smith said. “It’s one of those days. We got the buzzsaw, and there’s things we’ve learned.”

Meanwhile, freshman Livia Feole came in to pitch the third inning, and she stopped the bleeding for the most part. The Clippers pushed across three more in the third and fourth, bringing them into mercy territory with an 11-1 advantage.

“She did okay, that’s an investment,” Smith said of Feole’s relief performance. “She is a freshman, she just needs to get more innings in.”

The Falcons couldn’t figure out Bodington, but the Clippers finally got to Feole. She would be forced from the game and replaced with Ricci after allowing three more runs in the top of the fifth. In the final frame, neither hurler could do much to stop Cumberland.

Leite would put an exclamation point on the victory when she stepped in with two outs and the bases loaded, crushing a grand slam to give Cumberland a 19-1 lead.

The road doesn’t get any easier for the Falcons as they had a game against undefeated North Kingstown scheduled for 4 p.m. on Wednesday, but results were unavailable at press time. The Skippers arguably boast the best pitcher in the state, Kiara Oliver.

“That’s kind of like jumping into the fire out of the pot,” Smith said of the impending game against North Kingstown. “Kiara’s gonna be a challenge as well, but that’s why we play the game. We’re going to play our best and see how we do against them.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here