SPORTS

Falcons shock Hawks, fall to NK

By ALEX SPONSELLER
Posted 6/23/21

The Cranston West baseball team had a busy week of playoff action and pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year when it beat Bishop Hendricken 6-3 in the Division I prelims.

The Falcons, …

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SPORTS

Falcons shock Hawks, fall to NK

Posted

The Cranston West baseball team had a busy week of playoff action and pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year when it beat Bishop Hendricken 6-3 in the Division I prelims.

The Falcons, however, would fall to North Kingstown 2-1 the following day in the quarterfinals.

Joe Domenico led West at the dish against Hendricken, going 2-for-4 with three RBI. Andrew Travieso also added a pair of RBI while Cole Carbone knocked in the other run. Jason Patalano turned in a strong performance on the mound for West, pitching a complete game while allowing no earned runs, three hits and striking out three.

“We jumped out to a quick lead but gave it right back to them. But from there, Jason Patalano was shut down. It was a complete
game, he doesn’t strike many people out but he attacks the strike zone. He had a great game, the kids stuck to the game plan. Pound the zone, don’t give them extra base runners with walks and errors,” said West coach Rob Malo. “Cole called a good game behind the plate, Andrew Travieso hit a single that scored a couple, we had a big hit from Joe Domenico.”

The game against NK was a low-scoring affair, with Domenico knocking in the team’s lone run. The game was tied in the bottom of the seventh when the Skippers would have the final run walked across the plate.

Nick Fortes got the start for West and allowed just five hits, one run and struck out two batters. With the season coming to a close, Malo was proud of his team for overcoming a
slow start and hitting its stride at the right time.
“They were excited. Going from the win that day to the loss the next day, they went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in just 24 hours which can happen in baseball,” said Malo. “The kids were excited with the
lineup that we had. We looked great on paper, but when it came to executing, you don’t win games with paper. Our first four losses were by a run and we were 2-4. We were four pitches away from being 6-0. But we were in every game that we played and got better. You want to peak at playoff time and going into the playoffs we knew that we were a better team than that. Going into the Hendricken game, we used the underdog card, played with a lot of confidence and executed when we had to.”

Malo will be losing nearly half of his starting lineup next season, so he also hopes that the younger players will be ready to ride this momentum.

“Hopefully this will get the ball rolling, hopefully it will make the kids work even harder in practice. Hopefully it makes them
work hard and be hungry and carry that over into next year,” said Malo.

The win against Hendricken also marked Malo’s 200th career victory as a head coach. “It’s nice. I would have liked to have had 201 and all the way up to 206 because that would have meant we were state champs,” Malo said. “It was nice though, it’s not about me, it’s about the kids. I said to the kids after the game that I am 0-108 and the kids are 200-0.
Coaches lose games and players win games.”

baseball, sports

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