Rising Stars Edge Coventry Crush In NK Softball Tourney

NORTH KINGSTOWN -- The Rising Stars 14-and-under girls’ softball team based in Cranston may be a newly-developed team, but Saturday’s 9-3 win over Coventry Crush showed the girls are certainly ready to compete with anybody.

Rising Stars used keen baserunning -- as a majority of their runs scored were via fielding errors -- and generally sharp gloves to move to 2-0 in pool play in the Cool August Blast tournament in North Kingstown.

“My defense is amazing,” Rising Stars manager Tricia Tallo said. “I have great defense. They work as a team. They’re like family.”

Rising Stars used a four-run second inning to pull ahead 5-0. A Coventry overthrow from home to second base on a steal attempt allowed a runner from third to score and a throw from the first baseman to home was high to allow another runner to score. Jacky St. Pierre crossed home on a wild pitch in addition to the other scoring plays.

Christina Vandall, Michele Tallo each had RBIs in the next inning when Rising Stars tallied three more runs. The team struck out twice in the game, and Tallo was pleased with how the players got the job done at the plate.

“We were hitting it,” Tallo said. We were hitting it, we were bunting, whatever we had to do to advance. These girls did what they had to do. They did it for the team.”

Coventry had a rough going with its bats but still managed to put the bat on the ball. Albeit striking out only five times, Coventry left seven runners on base and were picked off twice. Nicole Nardone and Erica Jewitt each had RBI singles for Crush in the fourth and Brianna Swanholm scored on an error in the sixth.

Rising Stars did make a few errors in the field but Tallo did not think it made a huge difference in the end.

“(The errors) weren’t too major today, like running in to charge at the ball and backing up (the fielders),” Tallo said. “Everybody’s got to be moving and I saw a little slacking of it but other than that they did a great job.”

The championship bracket had yet to be determined as of Saturday due to Saturday afternoon’s games that will implicate the seeding process. Coventry drops to 1-1 in pool play and the back-to-back wins for Rising Stars place them in good shape for the rest of the tournament. Tallo believes the team has what it takes to keep moving ahead.

“I think we can go further, absolutely,” Tallo said.