SPORTS

CWLL 12’s rebound

Posted 7/12/22

By ALEX SPONSELLER

The Cranston Western 12-year-old All-Star team reached the District I losers bracket final on Tuesday night after going 3-1 to start the summer tournament.

The CWLL …

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SPORTS

CWLL 12’s rebound

Posted

By ALEX SPONSELLER


The Cranston Western 12-year-old All-Star team reached the District I losers bracket final on Tuesday night after going 3-1 to start the summer tournament.

The CWLL 12’s beat Silver Lake 11-0 but would fall to Elmwood 6-5 to be bounced from the winners bracket. The team would rebound and beat Mt. Pleasant 10-0 then edged defending champion North Providence 6-4 on Sunday to advance to the final.

“It’s been up and down, it’s been a roller coaster of a summer. We’ve faced some adversity, Elmwood knocked us out of the winners bracket. They have a good team, they have a stud pitcher that shut us down. We found a way to get back to what we think we can be. We have the potential, it’s just about putting the puzzle pieces together to make it work,” said CWLL coach James Sweeney.

Although the CWLL lineup has had some hitting woes in the early going, Sweeney has been thrilled with his club’s pitching staff.

“Our pitching is everything. Nick Conte, Dylan Milano and Jeremy Silverio, that’s our three-headed monster. There’s a lot of pressure on them to throw strikes and play mistake free. We’re trying to get our offense going and trying to score runs, so those three guys are pivotal for our success,” Sweeney said. “We have a 14-man roster and we preach that we need everybody. That’s how it was with North Providence, every kid contributed in some way. That’s what it’s going to take, every game is going to be a battle.”

Milano scored a pair of runs in the win against North Providence while Lucas Santo, Ward, Andrew Schiappa and Aidyn Pizzutti scored as well.

Sweeney was also happy with his team’s response after dropping a tough decision to Elmwood on the road last week.

 “It’s so important. It’s all about the response. Some take it in a negative way, some take it in a positive way. There was something about our post-game huddle. It was like, ‘We’re here, we lost 6-5 in a great game to a very good team.’ We knew that we needed to get better than we were that night, but it was good to face elimination and to see what we truly are made of,” said Sweeney. “We also get a couple extra games of baseball, a few more at bats to hopefully get our confidence up.”

The team went on to face Elmwood in a rematch on Tuesday evening, but the results were not available at press time. Sweeney hopes the kids will continue to take it one step at a time.

 “They’ve embraced that one day at a time mentality. We just need to get to the next practice, get to the next day. I think that that has helped us,” said Sweeney. “We just need to take it day by day. (Monday’s) practice is the most important day of the summer, Tuesday’s game will then be the most important day of the summer.”

CWLL, baseball, little league

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