Johnston sweeps Coventry for Connie Mack crown

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They say defense wins championships, and Advanced Mobile Solutions Johnston (AMS) exhibited no shortage of defensive ability, shutting out Coventry twice and sweeping through a best-of-three series to win the Rhode Island Connie Mack Championship.

“We’re a good athletic team. We have guys that are specified for certain positions, and they’re all good at what they do, so if we put them in spots where they’re comfortable and they can have success, we’re ten times better than a team that has to play guys out of position. We’ve got guys that are great outfielders with great arms, guys who are great infielders with great hands, and all of these guys were comfortable playing where they were,” said Andy McKeon, manager of AMS Johnston.

Game one of the series was a 3-0 defensive battle that saw Zach Clesas of AMS Johnston and Justin Laroue take the hill as starting pitchers. Clesas was dominant, pitching a complete-game shutout while Laroue allowed three runs through five innings and was relieved by Michael Viveros. AMS Johnston’s fielding was also phenomenal as the team combined for three double plays, one of which ended the game with runners on first and second and the tying run at the plate

AMS Johnston’s offense got an early start due to some fielding trouble for Coventry in the first inning. Clesas reached first base on a throwing error after an infield ground ball was fielded cleanly and the throw to first skipped off the dirt and bounced over the first baseman’s head. After Nick Raposo singled and two passed balls, Clesas scored to give Johnston a 1-0 lead.

AMS Johnston added two insurance runs in the third, widening its lead to 3-0. After Jake Coro was walked and later stole second, Raposo ripped a line drive down the third base line for a double to knock in Coro. Korey Fijal’s sacrifice grounder advanced Raposo to third and Raposo scored off a Texas Leaguer by Emilio Rodriguez.

The second game of the series was a different story; one in which AMS Johnston completely dominated, winning 10-0. AMS Johnston’s defense was once again phenomenal as its fielding was near-flawless and starting pitcher Jake Podmaska, reliever Joe Bongiovanni and closer Erry Baldyac combined for another shutout.

This time, the difference for AMS Johnston was offense. As Andy McKeon puts it, “We’re just a resilient bunch of guys. A couple of times in the playoffs we struggled the first time through against good pitchers but our offense has such dynamic players that it’s tough to hold us down two or three times through the order. When we see a [pitcher] for the first time, he might cruise through us but that second time we’re right on him and that showed today. [Anthony Masseur] shut us down. He pitched a very good game. He got taken out due to some arm issues but I think if we had seen him a third time through, we probably would’ve had a little more success, but once we get comfortable in the box, we’re a tough team to get out.”

AMS Johnston faced Coventry starter Masseur early on, scoring just one run against him through three innings. However, due to an “arm issue” likely related to some lengthy AMS Johnston at-bats running up his pitch count, Coventry brought in several relievers, all of which struggled against AMS Johnston’s “dynamic” batters.

Nine of Johnston’s 10 runs came in the fifth inning with the exception coming in the third. Once again, AMS Johnston’s first run came off a passed ball, this time scored by Patrick Fleming. The fifth inning scoring started with a two-run blast over the left field wall by Ryan McKeon which knocked in Zach Guglielmo, the pinch runner for Luis Nunez. Romey Morel scored when Fijal was walked with the bases loaded, Baldyac knocked in Jake Coro on a base hit single through the gap, Raposo scored when Emilio Rodriguez was hit by a pitch and Fijal scored on a single through the gap by Clesas, all on consecutive at-bats. Not long after, Rodriguez scored when Fleming was walked with the bases loaded and Clesas scored on a sacrifice fly from McKeon.

After the fifth, Johnston just had to hold on for two more innings which it did easily, becoming 2015 Rhode Island Connie Mack Champions at the end of its first season in the league.

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