Sports
JHS Wins D-II Regional — At A Cost
Senior captain Ryan Geraghty separated his shoulder and will miss the rest of the postseason.
The Panthers varsity baseball team overcame a six-run deficit — and the loss of one of their senior captains — to defeat the Juanita Sanchez Cavaliers, 9-8, on May 28 at Memorial Park.
“This was their last time playing here, on this field, as Panthers, and we talked about that before the game,” said Johnston head coach Stephen DeMeo. “Even if we would’ve lost, we would’ve been alive for (May 29), but you don’t want to leave this field, of all the fields in the state, with that taste of a loss.”
The Panthers now move on to Pierce Field — and potentially McCoy Stadium for the D-II finals — without captain Ryan Geraghty. According to DeMeo, the senior catcher, who leads the team in on-base percentage and slugging, separated his left shoulder sliding headfirst into second base Saturday and will miss the rest of the season.
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DeMeo credited his shorthanded squad with fighting through the adversity.
“We could’ve packed it in. We knew our leader was out (and) it was 7-1," with Sanchez leading, DeMeo recalled. "We could’ve just said, ‘Let’s worry about tomorrow,’ and we didn’t."
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JHS plated seven runs in the fifth inning to establish an 8-7 lead, then added the winning run in the seventh after the Cavaliers hit a game-tying home run in the sixth.
Nick Loffredo and Steven Perfetto chipped in with a pair of RBIs apiece in the seventh, and senior Dylan Pingitore added a two-run single after stepping in for the injured Geraghty. Pingitore patrolled right field for JHS after the fifth inning, allowing Greg Doutre to replace Geraghty behind the plate.
Doutre gunned down a potential base-stealer before leading off the seventh with a double to right field. He then moved to third on a wild pitch and scored the game-winning run when Stephen Almagno’s grounder bounced past the drawn-in shortstop and into left field.
Junior Gian Bianchi, returning just two days after being hit with a one-hopper during the , tacked on an RBI single and picked up the win for the Panthers.
With the victory, Johnston improved to 3-0 in the postseason and secured the Division II North tournament crown. The Panthers are scheduled to return to the diamond on June 1 for the D-II semifinals in East Providence.
