By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

CUMBERLAND --- You would have thought Cumberland High would have shown some signs of rust after playing just its second ballgame in the last 13 days on Thursday afternoon.
Instead, the Clippers did the opposite and produced their most lopsided win of the season at Pilgrim High’s expense by parlaying a 13-hit attack and the marvelous two-hit pitching of senior co-captain Lyndsey Martins into a 10-0 triumph at Tucker Field.
The victory, which was finalized in the bottom of the sixth inning by the 10-run mercy rule, raised the Clippers’ record to 4-2 and keeps them in a tie for second place in the Division I standings with five other teams that have two losses each.
The Clippers will duel one of those teams on Saturday afternoon when they bus to North Kingstown to face the Skippers in a 3 p.m. affair at Ryan Park.
“We still have a long way to go,” offered Cumberland coach Marty Crowley. “There’s a lot of parity in our league this year and a lot of one-run games up and down the line. You just hope that when all is said and done and the dust is settled, you can end up as one of the top four teams and earn a bye (in the single-elimination opening round of the playoffs).”
The visiting Patriots, who were 24 hours removed from their 4-3 triumph at home over East Providence High, fell to 2-9, but Crowley and the Clippers weren’t ready to take them from granted.  
“(Pilgrim) beat East Providence by one yesterday and only lost to Warwick (Vets) by one last week,” reported Crowley. “In this division, you have to be prepared to play every day, and today we came to play.”
One player who came to play was Martins, who last pitched on April 17 and tossed a two-hit shutout over South Kingstown High. Against Pilgrim, she fanned six batters (including the side in order in the second inning), walked two, and recorded 10 groundouts, six of them comebackers to the mound.
Martins also allowed only one batted ball to reach the outfield, No. 3 batter Cathrine Fowler’s two-out line single in the sixth that glanced off the top of Martins’ glove and found its way into center field.
“Lyndsey hadn’t pitched in more than a week, but she pitched very well and didn’t show any ill effects from it,” remarked Crowley. “She’s not going to overpower you, but she hit her spots and mixed her pitches up really well.”
Offensively, catcher Krissy Peffer led the Clippers’ assault by going 3-for-4 from the No. 2 spot in the lineup. Leadoff batter Casey McDonald and No. 9 batter Lauren Sloss each had two hits and three runs batted in, and Kayleigh Martins also came off the bench to join the multiple-hit club. 
“We’ve been working a lot on our hitting,” said Crowley. “We’ve gone back to fundamentals and basics, and the one thing I like about our batters is that they’re battling every time up. We got some nice hits on 0-2 counts and that was good to see.”
The hosts scored the only runs they needed in the bottom of the second off Pilgrim starter Leah Furney. A leadoff bloop single to left field by Christina Speroni and one-one walks to Ashley Noke and Samantha Curran helped set the tables for Sloss, who drove in Speroni with a ground single to right.
McDonald then followed with a soft single that slowly rolled along the first-base line, and when Furney raced in to field it, she had no play at any base.
After Furney set down the Clippers in order in the third, they answered back in the fourth by producing three more runs, and Sloss again got things going with a sharp run-scoring single to left that drove in Noke.
“Lauren picked us up again from the bottom of the order,” offered Crowley. “Getting three RBIs from your No. 9 hitter is not too shabby.”
McDonald made it a 4-0 game by driving in Curran with a triple belted over the head of center fielder Brittany DeRouin, and Peffer knocked in the next run with a bloop single that fell between DeRouin and shortstop Kyrie Craig in shallow center.
On that play, Craig collided with DeRouin just as she was going to make an over-the-shoulder grab. Both players went down, but Craig remained on the ground with injuries to her head and neck, and the contest was delayed for a half hour as she was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
The Clippers extended their command to 9-0 in the sixth on a pinch-hit RBI single to center by Kayleigh Martins, run-scoring groundouts by Sloss and McDonald, and a RBI triple ripped down the left-field line by Bethany Paul.
The contest came to a halt in the sixth when Shauna Smith drew a walk with one out and later scored on the Patriots’ fourth infield error of the game.
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Pilgrim        000    000--0-2-4
Cumberland    020    341--10-13-0
Leah Furney, Carly Cabral (4), Amber O’Brien (6) and Cathrine Fowler; Lyndsey Martins and Krissy Peffer. 3B -- Casey McDonald (C), Bethany Paul (C).