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June 20, 2007

Rebels win, face Cranston West for Division I title

PAWTUCKET — The South Kingstown High baseball team team earned the right to meet undefeated Cranston West in the title round of the R.I. Interscholastic League’s double-elimination Division I state tournament last night as the Rebels posted an 8-4 victory over Portsmouth in the tournament’s losers-bracket final at McCoy Stadium.

South Kingstown was on the verge of elimination Saturday night when it lost to Portsmouth in the opening round of the four-team championship tourney. But the Rebels stayed alive with a victory over Hendricken in a losers-bracket game on Sunday, then made it two in a row last night in a win-or-go-home game.

South Kingstown meets Cranston West, the defending state champion, tonight at 6:30 at McCoy. A victory tonight will give Cranston West its second straight crown. If South Kingstown hands the Falcons their first loss of the tourney tonight, the deciding game will be played tomorrow night at McCoy.

''I’ve never had a team that just loves to play the game like them,'' veteran South Kingstown coach Jim Sauro said about his Rebels. ''I’ve had more talented teams, but this team is just the most resilient team I’ve ever had. They are phenomenal kids, they just keep working, and you never know what’s going to happen.”

The Rebels scored five runs on only one hit in the fifth inning, taking them from a 2-0 deficit to a lead they never relinquished. But it took another strong effort from their mound ace, Jackson Geary, to keep the Rebels in front.

Geary, who threw 98 pitches in the Rebels’ victory over Hendricken on Sunday, came on in relief in the bottom of the sixth with no outs and the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base and retired six straight hitters over two innings.

“I was pitching on two days’ rest, but my arm feels pretty good,” said Geary, who pitched 12 complete games en route to a 12-0 record this season.

Portsmouth didn’t waste any time jumping out to a 1-0 lead as the Patriots combined Ryan Westmoreland’s double, Adam Recce’s single and Pedrotty’s sacrifice fly for a run in the bottom of the first.

That’s the way the score remained until the fourth, when the Patriots increased their advantage to 2-0 as Jimmy Ayars doubled home Nick Grande with two outs.

A pair of 6-4-3 double plays, one in the first and another in the fourth, helped Portsmouth starter John Pedrotty keep the Rebels off the scoreboard.

But in the fifth, Pedrotty get himself into trouble with wildness. He started the inning by issuing a walk to Ryan Stone, then hit Kevin Carey, the Rebels’ ninth hitter. Pedrotty got himself in deeper trouble when he attempted to get Stone at third on Zac Johnson’s bunt back toward the mount, but Stone beat the throw.

Pedrotty did manage to get one out on a short fly ball to center, but then he hit two straight batters, forcing home a pair of runs.

Geary, who was playing first base until he came on in relief in the sixth, followed with a single to right, driving home South Kingstown’s third run. The Rebels then were handed two more runs on a passed ball and a wild pitch. By the end of the inning, the Rebels had five runs on only one hit.

The wildness bug must have been contagious because in the bottom of the fifth South Kingstown starter Andrew Joyce, who had walked only two in the first four innings, walked three of the next four batters he faced.

Cory Benton came on in relief and got the second out of the inning on a strikeout, but then the Rebels picked up two runs on Brian Shelburne’s grounder over the second-base bag and a wild throw to the plate. But Benton came back with his second strikeout, leaving the potential tying run on third.

After Pedrotty struck out three of the four batters he faced in the top of the sixth, Portsmouth jumped on Benton in the bottom of the inning. Benton issued a leadoff walk to Jimmy Ayars, then Ryan Westmoreland moved him to second with a single to right.

That’s when Sauro decided it was time for Geary.

The junior right-hander didn’t have any problem answering the call, and he needed only 16 pitches to get the six outs in the sixth and seventh.

The way Geary was pitching, the one-run advantage probably would have been enough. But the Rebels added some insurance with three more runs in the top of the seventh.

As if his pitching effort wasn’t enough, Geary also made a contribution to the Rebels’ offense when he singled home the first run in the top of the seventh. Two more hits, two errors and a well-executed squeeze produced the other two runs in the seventh.

-- JOHN GILLOOLY

Posted by Thom Cahir  at 11:13 PM to High School | Permalink

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Posted by: jim tourgee jr at June 20, 2007 11:25 PM

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