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By MICHAEL PARENTE Sports writer SMITHFIELD – A typical early-season, high school baseball game turned on a rather atypical play.
Taking advantage of a passed ball on what would’ve been the third and final strike of the inning, Woonsocket High rallied for three runs in the top of the sixth Wednesday to beat Smithfield, 8-7, in its Division I season opener.
With the Sentinels nursing a one-run lead, reliever Charlie Kwolak struck out Eric Lee on what should’ve been the final out of the inning, but the ball skipped past catcher Eric LaRoche and rolled to the backstop, allowing Lee to reach first safely and Justin Rainville to advance to third.
Two batters later, Jim Castonguay delivered a two-run single with the bases loaded to give Woonsocket the lead for good and Matt Ledoux pitched two scoreless innings of relief to earn the save.
“That was huge for us,” Villa Novans head coach John Marsella said. “We’ve been stressing the importance of two-out hits throughout our preseason scrimmages. I kept track of how many times we’ve left runners in scoring position with two outs, and I said, ‘Guys, we have to get hits with two outs,’ and Jimmy really came through for us today.”
With a strong, swirling wind dropping the game-time temperature well below 50 degrees, Wednesday’s 2-hour, 45-minute opener featured a combined nine errors, three passed balls, two wild pitches, two runners picked off base and one batter called out on interference. The Villa Novans committed six errors and allowed four unearned runs while Smithfield coughed up the lead in the sixth courtesy of three walks and an ill-timed passed ball.
“I’ve learned in the short time I’ve been doing this to always expect the unexpected,” Marsella said. “They’re kids, and you’ve got to constantly remind them. The things you think are fundamental that they should know, they say, ‘Oh, I forgot.’ Then it’s back to a lot of drills, and a lot of basic fundamental work during practice.”
Woonsocket scored four runs in the top of the second and led 5-1 heading into the bottom of the third before the Sentinels stormed back against Rainville. Smithfield took advantage of four Woonsocket errors in the third and scored on a passed ball and a wild pitch to trim its deficit to 5-3. After retiring the first two batters he faced in the fourth, Rainville ran into more trouble when he plunked No. 9 hitter Jeff Farmer and allowed a single to Joe Landi, who took second on leftfielder Derek Riel’s ill-advised throw to third. LaRoche followed with a two-run single to center to tie the game.
The rally continued in the fifth as Smithfield took the lead on a surprising play that caught Woonsocket off guard. With two outs, runners on second and third, and Greg Tessier at the plate, Matt Alcuskey broke for home. Convinced it was a suicide squeeze, Rainville tried to pitch out, but his delivery sailed past catcher Kyle Nordby, allowing both runners to score.
“All it was was just a steal of home,” Smithfield first-year coach Steve Quattrini said. “A former coach here, Dick Hagopian, used it many years ago in a playoff game and it worked. I just had it in the back of my mind. We practiced it, and it worked well.
“Woonsocket had some nice pitching out there, we were at the bottom of our lineup, so it was just an opportunity for us to push a couple of runs across.”
Alcuskey scored easily on Rainville’s wild pitch and John Kashmanian crossed home with Smithfield’s seventh run when Nordby failed to retrieve the ball in time.
“What I tried to explain to my pitcher is that’s not really a suicide squeeze,” Marsella said. “That was a straight steal of home. He said, ‘But coach, that’s what we worked on. We throw inside on the squeeze.’ Yeah, but there’s two outs. You let him bunt. You throw him out at first, there’s no blood.
“That was a straight steal, and it caught us sleeping a little bit. It really did. And it cost us two runs because our catcher took a nap and didn’t chase it to the backstop – little things like that.”
Woonsocket’s game-winning rally in the sixth began with a leadoff single by Tyler Brien and a base hit down the right-field line by Melvin Torres that allowed Brien to reach third. The rally fizzled when Kwolak caught Torres in a rundown between first and second. Brien scored on the play, but the Villa Novans lost a baserunner.
“I thought we blew a chance to open it up a little bit,” Marsella said. “We should know better than that.”
Rainville walked with one out and advanced to third on LaRoche’s passed ball before scoring the game-tying run on Castonguay’s single up the middle. Kwolak took the loss, allowing three runs – one earned – on three hits and five walks in two innings.
“That was definitely the breaking point in the game right there,” Quattrini said. “Kwolak’s been struggling. He’s got a groin injury and he’s trying to work through it. We felt if we had gotten that out, we’d have been in good position, but it just didn’t work out. Both teams worked hard in extreme weather, and we’ll bounce back Friday against Cumberland.”
Rainville pitched five innings for the win and allowed only three earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts. Torres finished 3-for-4 and Thomas Jarry had two hits and scored twice. Woonsocket will host Saint Raphael on Saturday at 11 a.m.
“We made a lot of mental mistakes today,” Marsella said. “First game of the season, we’ll excuse it, but we can’t continue to make those mistakes and expect to be competitive.”
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Woonsocket 041 003 0–8 12 6
Smithfield 102 220 0–7 6 3
Justin Rainville, Matt Ledoux (6) and Kyle Nordby. John Kashmanian, Tim Jamieson (5), Charlie Kwolak (6) and Eric LaRoche. 2B – Eric Lee, Thomas Jarry.
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