Offense Aplenty in Cranston Stadium Nightcap

CRANSTON -- Sometimes all it takes is one rough inning to put a baseball game out of reach. On Saturday night at Cranston Stadium, the 14-year old Coventry Babe Ruth squad fell to North Providence, 7-5, after a five-run first inning put Coventry in a deficit it could not overcome.

“With (starting pitcher) Brandon Kenyon, he’s pretty reliable right from the beginning,” Coventry manager Joe Vigeant said. “It was uncharacteristic with him, he had a little bit of command issues. He could have been out of that inning with less than ten pitches. The pitch count started to add up and he started to get tired.”

Kenyon looked to have a promising start against North Providence, retiring the first two batters of the game. But after allowing back-to-back singles followed by back-to-back walks, things got out of hand in a hurry. North Providence’s Nick Russo then hit a two-run single to center in the opening frame to cap off the explosive half inning. Coventry’s fielding and pitching began to settle down after the overwhelming start. Two more runs in the second inning for North Providence -- including an RBI triple from CJ Dandeneau -- would be the final runs the team would collect.

Nick Palumbo pitched the final four innings for Coventry, allowing two hits and striking out four. “He pitched great baseball,” Vigeant said of Palumbo. “He kept them off balance, spotted his fastball and had good command. It just shows that if you throw strikes you’re going to get outs and if you pitch to contact you’re going to get outs. I can’t say enough about him, he kept us right in the game.”

Coventry began to claw its way back into the game in the top of the third. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Tyler Walsh pounded an inside-the-park home run to right field to close the gap from 7-2 to 7-5. However, later in the inning Coventry would leave the bases loaded after consecutive strikeouts. Vigeant believes that his team is even more motivated despite the fact they are now facing elimination in the loser’s bracket. “This is a very talented team,” Vigeant said. “They’ve worked extremely hard over the past three weeks. We’re going to show up and they’re excited about the possibilities that are coming out of that loser’s bracket. We have all the confidence in the world, we have a lot more pitching depth than we did last year. Believe me, we’re going to show up and we’re going to battle.”

Coventry plays tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. at Cranston Stadium. North Providence continues to play in the winner’s bracket and will play Cranston Monday at 8:00 p.m. at Cranston Stadium.