Johnston 10’s to play for state championship

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When it gets down to the top four teams in the 10-year-old all-star state tournament, there is a miniscule margin in talent differential, so there isn’t much room for error.

That proved to be true in Johnston and Warwick North’s first-round game at Lee Romano Field in North Providence on Saturday night.

Johnston, the District 1 champion, jumped out to a quick 4-0 advantage in the top of the first to take a commanding lead. However, the big inning was aided by three walks and two costly errors that put the District 3 champion in a big hole right out of the gates.

Joe DoMenico and Andrew Picard delivered RBI singles in the inning for Johnston, while Michael Salzillo drew a bases-loaded walk and an error allowed pitcher Derek Salvatore to score.

Putting up a four-spot never hurts, but because Johnston put up that crooked number right away, Manager Bob Giudici believes that took some pressure off of his team.

But at the same time, he also knew that the game was long from over.

“It definitely took pressure off of us, but you can’t let that set the tone, because at this point every team is an exceptional team,” Giudici said. “Any team can come back – I’ve seen teams come back from 10 runs.”

The game looked to be well in hand after the second inning, as Johnston tacked on two more runs to its lead in the second frame.

Errors factored into that inning as well, with Salvatore and Dante Ricci each touching home on separate errors, giving Johnston a 6-0 lead.

Salvatore silenced Warwick North’s bats over the first three innings, with his squad holding that 6-0 lead into the fourth inning.

Then, Warwick North made a push.

Warwick North put up a four-spot of its own in the bottom of the fourth on four hits, a hit batsman and an error.

Thomas D’Andrea got his team on the board with a sacrifice fly that plated Bobby Court, who led off the inning with a base hit.

Later in the inning, Jack Hornstein singled to bring home Tyler Cote, before Colby Barker drove in Jeriel Garcia and Mason Link to make it a 6-4 game. Garcia pinch-ran for Bobby Vale after he singled to load the bases with no one out.

However, that’s as close as Warwick North would get.

Barker pitched 3 2/3 innings of outstanding relief, but Johnston would get to him for a run in both the fifth and sixth innings.

In the fifth, Salzillo scored on a controversial passed ball as a pitch from Barker skipped past Hornstein and went under the backstop fence. The umpire ruled that Salzillo, who was on second, would be awarded two bases because the ball went out of play.

Warwick North would protest the call, but it was upheld, allowing Johnston to up its lead to 7-4.

In the sixth, relief pitcher Cam Salois hit a double in the gap to give himself some run support, scoring Salvatore to make it 8-4.

Salois would pitch 1 1/3 innings of relief, allowing one run in the bottom of the sixth on a bases-loaded walk to Dylan Cunetta that cut Warwick North’s deficit to 3.

But Dante Iafrate would come in to escape the jam on the bump for Johnston, getting Vale to groundout to third to end the threat and the game.

The win dropped Warwick North to the losers’ bracket, but it can take something away from the way that it battled back after getting down 4-0 early.

“We got down early, but we were able to buckle down and put some zeroes on the board,” Warwick North manager Tommy Hornstein said. “We were able to chip away and give them a bit of a scare at the end. It just wasn’t quite enough.”

Johnston, on the other hand, is now in a good spot. It’s right where it wants to be in the winners’ bracket, but there’s still a long way to go in order for Johnston to achieve its ultimate goal.

Johnston was set to play Smithfield on Sunday, and Giudici knew that wouldn’t be a walk in the park either.

“It’ll be a tough game,” Giudici said. “Hopefully we can mentally rebound and do a little bit better in terms of focusing on the game. We have to come with our best now.”

Both Warwick North and Johnston would each win their next game on Sunday, with Warwick North staving off elimination with a 15-9 win over Pineview, while Johnston earned a championship berth with a slim 8-7 victory over Smithfield.

Warwick North also beat Smithfield on Tuesday night to set up a rematch in the finals with Johnston tonight at 7 p.m. at Lee Romano Field.

Because Johnston came out of the winners’ bracket, it will need to be beaten twice.

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