Johnston’s Pingitore fires no-hitter for RIC

It has been four years since Dylan Pingitore led Johnston High School’s baseball Panthers to the Division II state championship.

Along the way, the talented left-handed pitcher earned a host of honors – including a football championship – before his graduation in 2011.

But the honors haven’t stopped for Pingitore, who this week was one of two Rhode Island College baseball players honored by the Little East Conference.

“Dylan and (outfielder) Joe Yankee of Lincoln were recognized by our conference for their respective performances in a 5-0 week for the baseball team,” Scott Gibbons, RIC’s veteran and outstanding sports information director, announced Monday. “Joe was named the Little East Conference Player of the Week and Dylan was named Pitcher of the Week.”

All Pingitore did was toss a no-hitter – and allow only three walks while striking out eight – in RIC’s impressive 11-0 whitewashing of always-tough UMass-Dartmouth. His first-ever collegiate no-no came back on April 14.

Pingitore also hurled an inning of scoreless relief for head coach Scott Virgulak’s Anchormen in a 16-7 rout of Eastern Connecticut back on April 18. For the season, Pingitore has appeared in six games while starting four. He is 2-0 with a 1.61 ERA and has piled up 23 strikeouts in 28 innings.

In that no-hitter against UMass-Dartmouth, Pingitore only allowed four base runners – three via walks and the other a fielding error – and didn’t allow the Corsairs to get a runner past second base in the game that was shortened after seven innings because of the LEC’s 10-run rule.

As for Yankee, he played in five games and batted .500, going 11-for-22 to go along with scoring seven runs. He had 11 hits, 11 RBI, four doubles, a home run and four stolen bases. He’s batting .418 (38-for-91) with 21 runs scored and 38 hits, nine doubles, three triples, two homers and 30 stolen bases. He owns a .648 slugging percentage, .424 on-base and .977 fielding percentage.

Pingitore, meanwhile, may have taken the most unusual route to collegiate baseball than any other member of the 2015 Anchormen.

After completing a highly-successful high school season in the spring of 2011, Pingitore finished his pre-college days by starring for Hurd Auto Mall, Johnston’s entry into the Rhode Island American Legion Baseball League.

In the fall of 2012, Pingitore’s freshman season at the Community College of Rhode Island was highlighted when head coach Ken Hopkins’ Knights played their way to the Region XXI championship, earning a berth in the National Junior College World Series in Oklahoma.

Pingitore’s sophomore season in 2013 featured the one-time prolific Panther pitcher enjoying success in two games while also receiving the prestigious Scholar-Athlete Award during a special ceremony at the Rhode Island State House.

Then it was off to the University of Rhode Island, where Pingitore played his way onto the Rams’ talented baseball troupe as a walk on, a.k.a. non-scholarship player.

“He was thrilled,” Pingitore’s father Joseph of J. Pingitore & Sons, Inc., who doubles as president of the Rhode Island Vintage Truck Haulers Association, remembered of the southpaw chucker making the traveling team at URI to boot. “Then it all fell apart so suddenly.”

Pingitore, who is an Honor Roll student major in nursing at Rhode Island College, was ruled ineligible due to an NCAA Division I ruling concerning a .5 credit shortage that was reportedly not transferable when he moved from CCRI to URI in 2014.

That’s when Pingitore decided to transfer again – this time to RIC where Virgulak knew of his talents – and as noted the former Panther football and baseball standout responded with nothing less than outstanding pitching performances every time he has taken the Anchormen’s mound.

Pingitore, who celebrated his 22nd birthday last night, bats and throws left. He was born on April 22, 1993 and helping the 13-7, 4-3 Anchormen stake claim to the Little East Conference crown.

RIC has four regular season games remaining beginning with this afternoon’s 3:30 home finale against Framingham State. The Little East Conference Championships are set for May 6-9 at a site not yet determined. The NCAA Division III Tournament will start on May 13 and Pingitore – and the entire Anchormen’s squad – is looking forward to being in the mix.