Local Legion Team Is Knocked From State Tournament

The R&R Construction of Newport American Legion baseball team got off to a great start but couldn't sustain the pace during Wednesday's state quarterfinal game against West Warwick. Following an RBI double by Kevin Galvin and a two-RBI double by Mark Ventura, Newport had a 3-0 lead after two innings. West Warwick respond, however, with a pair of run-producing singles in the top of the third, before getting a huge boost the next inning.

With two runners on first and second, West Warwick's Dan Smith sent a towering shot over the right centerfield fence to propel West Warwick to a 4-3 lead. Newport responded in the bottom half of the inning via small ball; Matthew Wojichowski led off the inning with a single and advanced into scoring position following a sacrifice bunt. The local squad eventually pushed across the tying run on a timely single by Matthew Murphy.

 Despite surrendering a three-run homer in the fourth inning, R&R starting pitcher Zach Yates kept his team in the game. With an unorthodox style of setting his fastball up by throwing a sweeping curve early in the count, Yates seemed in control of the West Warwick lineup. Nevertheless, he lost his composure in the fifth inning; after plunking the first two batters, Yates yielded a devastating two-run triple to West Warwick's Dave Hopkins. Cam Brown capped off the four-run rally with a sacrifice fly to propel West Warwick to an 8-4 lead after five innings.

Despite West Warwick capturing the lead and the game's momentum, R&R of Newport battled back. Following back-to-back doubles by Daniel Grimes and Zach Guillette in the bottom of the fifth, R&R cut the lead to 8-5. Later in the game, after an RBI single from Andrew Ponte and another big hit by Guillette, R&R trailed 10-8 going into the final inning.

After an innocent pop-fly found green grass in between three West Warwick players to lead off the bottom of the ninth, an R&R rally seemed promising; R&R eventually loadd the bases with one out to spare in the contest when Daniel Grimes came to the dish. Grimes crushed a fastball that seemed destined to sail over the  West Warwick centerfielder's head, but his dreams were dashed when the wind slowed the ball's travel, and West Warwick caught the final out at the centerfield warning track. West Warwick's Richard Lizotte received the win after four innings of solid relief. R&R's Yates took the loss.

When asked about the season and more specifically the game, R&R closer Daniel Kehew said, "Even though we lost, I'm not disappointed in our team character or performance. We had a good season. If the wind had been hollering like it had in every other inning, we would have walked off with a game-winning home run."