The Johnston Little League 11/12-year-old All-Star baseball team advanced in the little league tournament with a well balanced game that saw them pitch well and hit well in a 12-5 win over a tough Silver Lake squad on Tuesday night at Johnston Memorial Park’s Kennedy Field. Both teams needed to win in order to face Cranston West in the next round of the double-elimination tournament, and Johnston responded with some timely hitting and some clutch pitching.
Johnston jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning as Silver Lake’s pitcher, Heilo Sousa, struggled with his control, walking the first three batters he faced, mixed in with three wild pitches and a passed ball.
Johnston’s Ryan Allen and Mike Capraro each had two-run singles to give their team that four-run edge.
Silver Lake came back in the bottom half of the inning with two runs, one of which came on a solo home run by their catcher, Christan Roman. Silver Lake manager Alex Ruiz spoke highly of his star player saying, “Roman has at least 10 home runs this season and he can play just about any position, he pitched for us last Sunday and struck out 17 batters, but his strength is his hitting.”
Sousa settled down and struck out the side in the second and helped his own cause in the third inning with an RBI single, but was caught between first and second in a run down for the final out of the inning.
Leading 4-3 in the 4th inning, Johnston broke open the game in a big way on a Matt Fortier grand slam home run as Silver Lake used three pitchers in that pivotal inning.
“We hit the ball really good tonight,” said Johnston manager Dave LaVallee. “Fortier came through for us, he has been my No. 1 guy all year for me. We really never let Silver Lake get a big inning because our pitching was good. We held all our pitchers to 35 pitches apiece. I went with three guys and now I have all my pitchers lined up for the next series.”
Ryan Allen, Conner Kennedy and Matt Fortier all threw well for Johnston, combining for 10 strikeouts in the game. They allowed only four hits as well.
Silver Lake got two runs back in its half of the fourth on a two-run homer by Angel Pena to close the gap to 8-5. Johnston tacked on some insurance runs later in the game on an RBI single by Dimetri Iafrate, while Fortier shut the door on any Silver Lake comeback by retiring all six batters he faced, four via strikeouts.
“We have had 100-percent effort every time we go out there,” said Ruiz. “I tell our players to try their best and never give up. In the past 26 years, this is the furthest Silver Lake has gone in the tournament and these kids have made a name for themselves this year and for next year. We had our fourth-string pitcher start today and by the time he got into it his pitch count was too high, but these guys played with their hearts even though we were missing two key pitchers.”
Johnston will now face Cranston Western tonight and must beat them twice in order to stay alive in the tournament.
“The one thing I like about this year is that there are eight teams in the bracket and there are more variety of teams to play,” LaVallee said. “I respect Cranston West and we have had some good battles with them over the years. We have our pitching lined up but we have to hit the ball against Cranston West. The last time we played them they no-hit us. We have a good defensive team, but you cannot catch the home runs that Cranston West had against us the last time we played them.”
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