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Johnston jolts Tolman '9' |
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Saturday, 24 May 2008 |
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By ERIC BENEVIDES Sports writer JOHNSTON --- Tolman High would have loved to have taken a couple of days off this Memorial Day weekend before resuming its quest for the Division II state championship next Monday.
Unfortunately, the Tigers will have to return to the diamond this afternoon for their third straight day and fight for their postseason lives.
Division II-North co-champion Johnston High knocked the Tigers into the losers' bracket of the Region II bracket of the Division II playoffs on Friday afternoon by posting a 7-2 victory in their second-round game at Johnston Memorial Park.
The Panthers, the second seed in the tournament, broke open a tight game by scoring four times in the home half of the sixth inning and surged into Monday afternoon's winners' bracket final in Wakefield against the top-seeded Prout School, which took its second-round contest with Ponaganset High by a 9-0 score.
The third-seeded Tigers, meanwhile, will return to Slater Park, the scene of their opening-round triumph over Classical High on Thursday, and take on Central High in a 3:45 p.m. affair. Tolman beat Central by a 5-4 score in their regular-season meeting on April 30 at McCoy Stadium.
"It's a brutal, brutal setup that we have to play three days in a row, but that's the way the tournament's run," said Tolman coach Theo Murray, whose squad (now 14-6) came into the contest with five straight division victories. "If you want to advance in these playoffs, you have to beat very good teams, and Johnston is a very good team. They're going to be battling right to the end."
The Panthers, who extended their win streak to a division-best 10 games and improved to 15-4, rolled out to a 2-0 lead in their opening swings by taking advantage of four walks. Tolman starting pitcher Mike Greene only faced four batters -- walking three and allowing a single and a run -- before Murray brought in Jack Cruz, and he walked the first batter he faced to force in another run before settling down.
The Tigers knotted the score in the top of the third on a two-run homer to straightaway center field by Kyle Dumont, which came after Kyle Traghella led off with a walk and took second on a groundout by Derek Ethier.
But the Panthers reclaimed their lead for good in their half of the inning when Bob DiCiccio led off with an infield single, and after he stole second base, he scored on a sharp single to left by Andrew McKeon.
The Tigers had a golden opportunity to get back into the game in the fourth when they put runners on second and third with no one out. But after the Panthers got a quick out on a tapper back to the mound, the Tigers botched a suicide squeeze attempt for the second out and Johnston pitcher Nico Della Porta struck out the next batter he faced to end the threat.
"We had opportunities to move guys over, and we had that blown suicide squeeze," said Murray. "I don't want to take anything away from Johnston because they did what they had to do on the field, but we had our opportunities. Unfortunately, we couldn't get things done."
Cruz, meanwhile, kept the Tigers in the game with his excellent relief pitching, but he ran out of steam in the sixth and gave up four hits in the Panthers' sixth-inning rally. McKeon, who finished the game with four RBIs, highlighted the inning with a two-run homer to left, and DiCiccio added a run-scoring single to left that set the stage for McKeon's blast.
Della Porta went six innings to pick up the victory, as he struck out eight batters (including the side in the fifth) and surrendered five hits and four walks.
The Panthers finished the game with 10 hits and received a 3-for-3 day at the plate from leadoff batter Nick Pistacchio, who led Johnston in batting this season with a .517 average. Dumont had two of the Tigers' five hits, and Justin Bourdeau walked in all three of his plate appearances.
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Tolman 002 000 0--2-5-2
Johnston 201 004 x--7-10-2
Mike Greene, Jack Cruz (1) and Kyle Traghella. Nico Della Porta, Brandon Parillo (7), Andrew McKeon (7) and Ryan Geraghty. HR -- Kyle Dumont (T), Andrew McKeon (J). |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 May 2008 )
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