By BRENDAN MCGAIR

Sports writer

EAST PROVIDENCE – All that stood between North Smithfield forcing a winner-take-all contest with The Prout School were five defensive outs. Turns out the Northmen were only able to pick up three.
The top-seeded Crusaders scored four times in the home half of the sixth, erasing a 4-1 deficit en route to pulling out a 5-4 final in what was the final contest of the Division II, Region II bracket, held Saturday afternoon at Pierce Field.
The victory pushes Prout into this week’s Division II championship round at McCoy Stadium. Meanwhile the Northmen, who saw the curtain lowered on their title defense, conclude a season that was filled with plenty of turbulence, yet was one in which made head coach Marc Talbot feel mighty proud.
“I think our guys showed a ton of spirit,” said Tablot, trying to curb his emotions. “It goes back to March 17 [the first day of practice] and whether we would be at this point. I think we could have said maybe, but the thing is that things didn’t go right. We lost players to injuries and grades, and yet the guys who stuck around gave me everything they got.
“In the final analysis I’m proud of these guys, and the final five outs isn’t going to change that.”
Things were looking mighty good for the Northmen. The Crusaders only managed to nick one run on four hits off starter Brian Van Pelt through the first five innings. Should Van Pelt falter, Talbot had the luxury of deploying ace Nick Narodowy.
“That’s the way we diagramed it up in the locker,” said Talbot. “The matchup was not great for Brian because Prout is a good fastball hitting team. The plan was for him to work backwards and throw a lot of off-speed stuff early in counts.” 
Then came the sixth, which saw Prout string together four straight hits, resulting in three runs and a tie ballgame. Van Pelt departed after 5 1/3 innings, walking four with three strikeouts. He was charged with four runs on seven hits.
In came Narodowy, who surrendered a bloop single to Prout leadoff batter Chris Siravo that wound up scoring the tying run. North Smithfield had the infield hit, what with runners on second and third. Siravo’s base knock fell safely just a few feet behind the infield dirt.
With two down and the bases loaded, Prout sent up pinch hitter Thomas Schubert. A couple of borderline calls went against Narodowy, resulting in the Northmen junior falling behind, 3-1.
Schubert, a right-hander, displayed a selective eye, leaving a pitch just inches off the corner for ball four. That gave the Crusaders their first lead of the contest.
North Smithfield, which fell to Prout last week in Wakefield, wasted no time. The Northmen scored three times in the top of the first on four hits. Peter Mancini stroked a RBI double while Ben Shatraw plated a run on a grounder to short.
From that point Prout starting pitcher Brad Horsfield settled in. The junior allowed a single run over the final six innings, a stretch that saw him feature more breaking pitches while staying away from his fastball. 
“I thought that really set the tone,” said Talbot, whose crew would squander a bases loaded opportunity in the fourth inning. “Things really started well, there was a lot of pep and enthusiasm.”
Sophomore Nick Aridano (two singles) gave North Smithfield a three-run cushion after stroking a RBI single in the sixth. “He was a guy we put in the lineup the last two weeks of the season,” said Talbot. “We wanted to put someone at the bottom of the order who was scrappy, and Nick has come through for us.”
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North Smithfield    300 001 0 – 4-7-1
Prout        000 104 x – 5-8-2
Brian Van Pelt, Nick Narodowy (6) and Kevin Okruta. Brad Horsfield and Matt Dowd. 2B: Nick Narodowy, Peter Mancini.