By ALEX SPONSELLER After winning its first three games of the spring season, the Cranston East baseball team dropped four straight contests and is looking to turn things around this week.

The Bolts lost to Bishop Hendricken, Lincoln and two games to Cumberland, all by two or fewer runs.

Although the Bolts have learned some valuable lessons in the losing streak, they are beginning to feel the urgency of needing to turn things around down the stretch of the regular season.

“It’s right at the breaking point of where it is beneficial to lose a close game, but not wanting to lose too many,” said East coach Gary Bucci. “We are limited with pitching, we’re trying to pitch backwards. We’re trying to pitch a younger kid and try to get them through the lineup then try to bring in the older kids. That is what we have done, but the problem is that we get down and start to pull ourselves out of it but we run out of time. That is what has happened.”

East has a solid core of contributors that have shined early this season. The Bolts are now waiting for a few new players to emerge and to help them take the next step forward.

“They’re not young, but they haven’t played a lot. A lot of our starters were freshmen the last time they played so they are young to high school baseball as all teams are,” said Bucci. “Chris Torres has done a nice job and is probably our best pitcher, he is hitting the ball very well and is one of our leaders. Nate Poshkus is a really good kid that plays left field that also pitches and has done a good job offensively and defensively. Matt Wynn has done a good job pitching for us. Anthony Fernandez transferred in and is an enormously talented center fielder and his future is extremely bright. He’s done a real nice job.”

The Bolts will take on Pilgrim this Thursday and then North Kingstown Friday. With the scheduling entering its second half, Bucci hopes to see the team build some momentum heading into the playoffs.

“They’re monsters. We need to win one or two of those and get situated for the playoffs. Once we feel confident in that, some of the pressure will be off. They’re all going to be big now, when you’re middle of the road, every game is a monster,” said Bucci. “We’re going to need a couple of the younger kids to come up with some solid pitching performances. That means even just a few innings to bridge to the older kids to close things out.”