Skippers Blank Chargers 10-0

The North Kingstown High baseball team rolled over Chariho High 10-0 in six innings Friday at Lischio Field.

Freshman Dom Grillo led the Skippers with another solid performance on the mound, striking out nine hitters and allowing no runs on three hits in a complete game effort.

“It felt good, my curve ball was a little off early on, but I was able to get it back towards the end,” Grillo said.  “I just wanted to throw strikes, not throw too many pitches and don’t walk anyone.”

Grillo has emerged as North Kingstown’s ace this season, partially due to injury to some of the Skippers other pitchers, but predominately a result of his performance on the mound.

“He’s been a great asset to our team, and right now he’s our number one pitcher,” North Kingstown head coach Kevin Gormley said. 

“Every time he’s gone out there he’s been successful, but the thing that impresses me most about Domenic is his focus and grit, if he makes a mistake he just doesn’t let it bother him.”

Through the first three innings of Friday’s game, however, it appeared as if it would be anybody’s contest.

The Skippers clung to a 1-0 lead, and Chariho starter and junior Kyle Audette had matched Grillo nearly pitch for pitch in terms of performance.

“We scratched a few runs out early on, which was good because we’re going to see good pitching I nthe playoffs,” Gormley said.

Things started to unravel for the Chargers in the fourth inning when North Kingstown senior Joe Haley walked to lead off the inning, and then followed by stealing both second and third base.

Haley would score two batters later on a ground out to second from sophomore Chris Hess, and while the Chargers were able to get out of the inning, North Kingstown gained complete confidence in its ability to swipe bases.

Not known for their speed on the base paths, the Skippers utilized what they felt was their advantage for the game and generated a pair of runs thanks in large part to stolen bases from senior Cody Barner and sophomore Austin Barry in the bottom of the fifth.

“We were fortunate that we were able to steal some bases today, that’s not really in our game, but we saw a situation that we could take advantage of and we did,” Gormley said. 

The floodgates completely opened in the sixth inning, as North Kingstown scored six runs in the inning, only half of which were earned. 

“North Kingstown is a quality team, and we can’t afford to give them free base runners or extra outs,” Chariho head coach Dave Cunningham said.  “When we did you saw what happened, and when we played fundamental baseball we can compete with them.”

As the season comes to a close, the Chargers and Skippers find themselves on opposing ends of Division-II South.

At 13-3 North Kingstown is on top of the division, with only games against Tiverton High Saturday at noon and against East Greenwich High Monday at 3:45 p.m.  

Monday’s game with the Avengers will determine the regular season division champion, and will have major bearing on seeding headed into playoffs.

“It’s tough because we have playoffs starting on Wednesday, in theory it’s a big game, but we’re trying to get ready for the playoffs,” Gormley said.  “We threw our best guy today, and he won’t throw against until Wednesday.”

The Chargers (3-13 D-II South) are unfortunately at the bottom of the division, and will finish up its season at Coventry High on Saturday at noon and at home against South Kingstown High Monday at 3:45 p.m.

“We’ll just get two more games and get out of here, and then we’ll assess everything at the end on Monday,” Cunningham said.