Falcons bounce back, continue strong start

Posted 4/17/14

It was only one inning, but it left the Cranston West baseball team unsure of how to feel.

A week later, the Falcons feel just fine.

After an 11-3 loss to Bishop Hendricken on Wednesday in …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Falcons bounce back, continue strong start

Posted

It was only one inning, but it left the Cranston West baseball team unsure of how to feel.

A week later, the Falcons feel just fine.

After an 11-3 loss to Bishop Hendricken on Wednesday in which West gave up seven two-out runs in the top half of the seventh inning, the Falcons crushed North Providence two days later in a 13-2, six-inning, mercy-rule victory, then followed that up with an 8-1 win over Woonsocket on Monday.

With a 3-1 record at this point in the season, West has been impressive as any team in the division not named Hendricken, and except for the seventh inning against the Hawks, the Falcons look more than capable of holding their own against the defending state champions, who are 4-0. West trailed just 4-3 entering that inning.

As quickly as it happened, though, West erased it from its memory. In the 25 innings outside of the Hendricken seventh, Wets has out-scored its opponents 35-8.

“It was kind of like a shell shock in a sense,” said West head coach Rob Malo. “I told the kids today before the (North Providence game), ‘Good teams bounce back from something like that.’”

The Falcons certainly bounced back. They scored six times in the second inning against North Providence to blow the game wide open, then scored five more times in the sixth to extend the lead. On the mound, Myles Levy pitched all six innings, allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out five.

“We just wanted to come out and make a statement, show everyone that we can do it,” said senior Jimmy Diehl, who made a statement of his own with the bat.

Diehl, hitting clean up, went 3-for-3 in the game with five RBI, including a three-run home run to left field in the second inning. He finished just a triple shy of the cycle, and also added a walk.

In his final at-bat, he hit a long foul ball that would have been another home run if straight, and then proceeded to knock in a run with a double.

“When he hit the foul ball, he got to third and said, ‘I don’t think my brother [former West star and current New York Mets minor leaguer Jeff Diehl] went back-to-back did he?’ and I said, ‘No, but you didn’t either, but you almost have the cycle and I don’t think he ever did that,’” Malo said. “He laughed at that.”

Beating North Providence was no small task either, as it was the Cougars’ only loss of the year. They are also 3-1.

It was a total team effort. While Levy got the job done on the mound, his defense backed him up, as the Falcons didn’t make a single error.

Offensively, West racked up 16 hits. Dan Smith went 4-for-4 and Gersham Rainone went 3-for-4, while six others – Sam Franco, Travis Collins, Armand Vaziri, Jeff Ragosta, Matt Lonardo and Kemi Idowu – had a hit apiece.

“One through nine we can hit the ball,” Diehl said. “Absolutely.”

The teams traded runs in the first inning, but the second inning belonged to West, and it did all its damage with two outs. Smith singled with one out, and Franco singled with two outs. After Lonardo walked to load the bases, Rainone singled in two runs to put the Falcons up 3-1.

The fourth run came home when Jeff Ragosta – who reached on a fielder’s choice earlier in the inning – scored on a double steal, and the last three runs came on Diehl’s bomb, putting West up 7-1.

“Waist-level pitch, and I just swung at the fastball I got,” Diehl said. “I’m not going to get a lot, so I took advantage of it.”

West added a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Vaziri and North Providence got one back in the fifth, but the Falcons exploded again in the sixth.

Singles by Lonardo and Rainone started things off, and Collins plated Lonardo with a groundout. Diehl then doubled in a run and an error scored West’s 10th of the game. Idowu got in on the action with an RBI single, and a single by Smith followed by another North Providence error on the throw into the infield allowed the 12th run to score. A sacrifice fly by Matt Shapiro brought in the final run.

Levy then allowed the first two runners to reach in the sixth before striking out two in a row and inducing a pop-up to end the game.

“I’m happy with the way things are going,” Malo said. “We had a minor setback against Hendricken, but it’s a work in progress. We want to get better every day and we’ll go from there.”

The Falcons played a non-league game on the road against Norwich Free Academy (Conn.) on Saturday and lost 19-6, but bounced back with the win over Woonsocket on Monday. Idowu threw 6.2 innings, with Diehl getting the final out on the mound.

Diehl also had another big day offensively, knocking in two runs with a double and scoring a run.

Next up for West was a rivalry game on Wednesday against East, with the results unavailable at press time. After that, it will host La Salle on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here