By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

The rumors have been swirling around the Blackstone Valley area as hard as a ferocious cyclone that the current Lincoln Little League team has the ability to go far in this summer’s All-Star Tournament. There has even been talk that the Major Division squad could rival its successful predecessors that have won six state championships in the last decade.
Lincoln manager Dale O’Dell is confident about this year’s team, but he’s not buying into that notion quite yet.
O’Dell’s young squad is off to a strong start in District IV pool play so far with a pair of four-inning, mercy-rule victories over East Woonsocket and Scituate-Foster where his all-stars belted out seven home runs and amassed more than two dozen hits. But he still hasn’t been able to see his teams overall potential.
Lincoln has had two of its games postponed due to rainouts, including Tuesday night’s contest against Central Falls. 
 “I think the tough part is we just don’t know how good this team is,” O’Dell said. “We haven’t played much and haven’t faced any top-notch pitchers.”
The last time Lincoln won a state crown was 2006. O’Dell had a chance to witness that success first hand. He was a coach along with Charlie Hien and his late father and manager Randy Hien. On that squad, O’Dell’s son, Ryan O’Dell was the ace of the staff.
But with a lineup that he says is strong from top to bottom, the elder O’Dell believes this year’s version has the potential to be even better than three years ago.
“It’s tough because all 13 players are capable of playing a lot of innings. There’s really not a lot of drop-off,” he said. “It think potentially it’s a better team than when my son played three years ago and they went to the New England (Championship).”
The strength in Lincoln’s lineup appears to be in its pitching staff with “dual” aces Jeffrey Sheehan and Tyler Duquette. Against East Woonsocket, a 13-0 win, Sheehan tossed a one-hitter and struck out 11 of the 12 batters he faced in the shortened game. Duquette limited Scituate-Foster to only three hits in his stint, an eventual 13-1 triumph.
“In our case, I think we have two No. 1’s,” O’Dell said. “The big part of Little League baseball is pitching. Sheehan is more a power pitcher where Duquette doesn’t throw as hard but has control. It’s like having a 1 and 1A (pitcher) - whatever way you want to look at it.”
If Sheehan or Duquette run into trouble on the mound, O’Dell is not hesitant to whom he throws out on in relief, including Sam Britto, a hard-throwing hurler, who also stars in the infield.
“We have three to four other players that are good pitchers if our (starting) pitchers don’t go deep,” he said. “(Britto’s) probably one of our better athletes on the team. He plays shortstop and throws pretty hard. He’s a good-size kid, our No. 2 hitter. He can be a very, very good on the mound because he can throw hard.”

As it demonstrated in its two games with its combined 26 runs, Lincoln has potential to produce big numbers offensively. Leading that category are Sheehan, Duquette, Britto, Alec Cronan (OF), Ryan Fournier (3B) and Justin Conti (2B).  Sheehan had two homers and seven RBI versus Scituate-Foster and Cronan has gone yard in both of Lincoln’s game this season.
O’Dell feels there are a number of good teams in the district tourney. Lincoln participates in Pool A, but the stronger Pool B includes an unbeaten Cumberland National squad (2-0) and equally-impressive clubs such as Cumberland American (1-1) and North Smithfield (1-1).
North Smithfield features perhaps one of the strongest pitchers in the entire league with C.J. Dandeneau, a young fireballer who has throws more than 70 MPH.
Not being intimidated to face pitchers like Dandeneau is a key to advancing in the tourney, according to the Lincoln manager.
“He throws hard. He throws well,” said O’Dell, about Dandeneau. “But I think the way any team makes the districts or states, is they got to beat the monster. Realistically, (Dandeneau) could be the monster. If not him, somebody else. If you can beat the monster, then you got something special.”
While his team may go undefeated during pool play, O’Dell believes the real test will be in the cross-over, semifinal match-ups.
“I don’t take anything for granted,” he said. “The scary part of the whole deal is when we play the cross-over semifinal games, which are single elimination. On any given day, you can get beat. There are some good teams. If you don’t bring your ‘A’ game, they’re going to get you.”
O’Dell is assisted in the dugout by coaches Joe Conti and Brian Sheehan. Conti is the manager of the Lincoln Middle School baseball team, which includes several of this year’s team. O’Dell has been his assistant at the middle school the last few years.
“The one thing about Lincoln Little League is the support,” O’Dell said. “My two assistants have done a great job and a lot of parents and past players at Lincoln are down here helping us out. There’s always enough help.”
“Randy and Charlie had a great thing going on. There’s a lot of pride for Lincoln Little League. Hopefully we can continue that.”
Barring more rainouts, of course, the district championships will take place on June 17 at Burrillville with the state tournament beginning shortly after at Cranston Western.
O’Dell is keeping his fingers crossed that his Lincoln squad can get that far and maybe win its seventh state crown since 1999.
“It’s been a couple of years,” he said. “This team has potential, but potential doesn’t win a district or state championship. Potential is just a word. We’ll see how it comes out. We definitely have enough talent, but you never know.”