By ALEX SPONSELLER The Flood Ford Auto Connie Mack baseball team fell in three games to South Kingstown-Narragansett in the state semifinals last week.

Flood Ford took Game 1 by a score of 8-2. Chris Manzo got the win on the mound while Keith Daigneau would enter the game in relief. Flood Ford scored three runs in the second inning on a suicide squeeze by Alex Coutcher and an RBI by Owen Leahy.

Max Turner and Jack Hornstein also knocked in runs while Xavier Quezada added another.

Flood Ford fell in a 10-inning affair in Game 2. Tied 1-1 heading into the 10th inning, Tyler Poirier would knock in the winning run to force a third game. Flood Ford’s lone run was scored on a bases-loaded, hit batter.

SK-Narragansett would seal the deal in Game 3, getting a 9-0 shutout win to punch its ticket to the state championship.

Despite the tough end, Flood Ford completed an unlikely turnaround this season. After falling to 0-6 to begin the year, the team would rattle off 12 straight victories to get within one game of the championship.

“We lost our first six games but we were playing well. We really played well all year but just came up short on the scoreboard. We were constantly telling the guys that they were better than their record and to just keep doing what they were doing. They just had to put it all together,” said Flood Ford manager Ed Holloway.

Holloway added: “We put everything together and won 12 in a row. We got good pitching, good fielding and we were hitting. We played well in the first series (of the playoffs), we even played well in the first two games of this last series. They got good pitching, timely hits, they just played a little better.”

Flood Ford will now flip the page to 2022. Holloway will remember this year’s club for its resiliency, improvement throughout the season, as well as the leadership displayed by a few of the veteran players.

“We had a handful of older players that were really positive on the young guys, players like Chris Manzo, Owen Leahy, Xavier Quezada” said Holloway. “We got some good leadership from the older guys and the younger guys improved as the year went on. They just continued to build that momentum throughout the season.”