Babe Ruth State Tournament: Cranston's Powers Past Portsmouth

Pitching and timely hitting will win you ballgames. This was on display on Friday night at Cranston Stadium.

Portsmouth matched up against Cranston in each team's first game of the Babe Ruth 14 year old State Tournament. The entire tournament, concluding on Wednesday night, will be played at Cranston Stadium. Cranston's squad jumped out to an early lead, and never relinquished it, winning it 6-0.

In the first inning, Cranston pushed across two runs despite the fact that neither run scored on a base hit. Kemi Idowu scored on a wild pitch and on a double steal John Pagano increased the lead to 2-0, and Armand Vaziri was out stealing second.

In the top of the second, AJ Rosemarino's RBI single extended the lead to 3-0. They would score once in the 5th, and twice in the 7th, led by Cory Hassel, who had two base hits and 2 RBI's. Their sixth run scored in the 7th inning, on a fielder's choice ground out.

In 5 and 1/3 innings of work, Cranston starter Tom Samartino allowed only four hits and no runs. Myles Levy recorded three strikeouts in his 1 and two thirds inning of relief and worked himself out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh, without surrendering a run.

"Our starting pitcher was great," Mike Enwright, Cranston's manager said.

Defensively, Cranston's team only committed one error and made several impressive plays. "Our offense was good and our defense played good, making some good plays," Enwright added.