Novans drop Panthers, but Picchi makes key return

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The negative for the Johnston baseball team on Tuesday afternoon was that it suffered its first loss of the season, a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Woonsocket.

But that’s a short-term issue, one that the Panthers will turn the page on today when they take on Cranston East at home at 3:45 p.m.

The long-term takeaway from the game with the Villa Novans was the health of pitcher James Picchi.

That alone made the day a success for Johnston.

Picchi, a senior right-hander, missed all of last season with a labrum issue after a breakout sophomore season two years ago. No one knew exactly what to expect when he made his first start since 2012 against the Villa Novans.

The result wasn’t perfect – he struggled with control from the first batter of the game – but his velocity was up, and there were no issues after the game.

Once he gets rid of the rust, Johnston is confident that Picchi will be back to his old self, giving it another weapon as it tries to make another deep postseason run.

“The good news out of the whole thing is that going in, this is the first time that James has pitched in over a year,” said Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo. “Our goal was to get him 70 pitches. He’s healthy, he feels good. He’s just got to work on throwing strikes.”

Picchi ended up pitching three innings, allowing one earned run on three hits. He struck out five, while walking six. He did not factor into the decision, as he left with Johnston holding a 2-1 lead.

He also showed some poise, as he allowed a run in the third on three consecutive hits to open the inning, but retired three of the next four batters – two on strikeouts – to get out of the jam without any further damage.

“James getting on the mound, it increases our confidence level,” DeMeo said.

Early on, Johnston looked like it might get a win for Picchi’s debut as well. It scored two runs in the first thanks to a leadoff walk by Ryan McKeon, a sacrifice fly by Joe Bongiovanni and an RBI single by Korey Fijal.

On the other side, Picchi didn’t allow a hit through the first two innings, and he worked out of a two-out jam in the first and a bases loaded jam in the second, with all the baserunners reaching on walks.

The Panthers bats, though, went cold. They ended the game with only two hits over the final six innings – a two-out single by Steve Pennacchia in the third and a leadoff single by Nick Raposo in the seventh.

They put the ball in play, as they didn’t strike out at all in the first six innings and struck out only twice from there, but they couldn’t seem to find a way to add to their run total.

“The first six innings we didn’t strike out,” DeMeo said. “We put the ball in play. It’ll come. That’s baseball.”

Woonsocket starter Jaquan Guerrero did his job, going five-plus innings and allowing just two hits and two earned runs. He walked two and didn’t strike out a batter.

His offense gave him some support in the third, when it scored one run on an RBI double by Kyle Beaulieu, plating Victor Hunt. Then in the fourth, with Johnston’s Jared Podmaska on in relief of Picchi, the Villa Novans took the lead and never let it up.

Podmaska retired the first man, but walked Will Andino and gave up a costly single to Hunt. Hunt hit the ball between Bongiovanni at first and Jacob Coro at second. Coro ranged to his left and actually was able to get to the ball, but Bongiovanni had dove for it and Podmaska didn’t cover first.

That put runners on first and second with one out, and Woonsocket took advantage.

“Not covering first base on that play was humongous,” DeMeo said. “Your margin of error starts to shrink.”

The Villa Novans executed a double steal to get two runners in scoring position, and Elijah Brackett hit a long double just over the out-stretched glove of Pennacchia in left field to plate both runners and put Woonsocket up 3-2.

Podmaska issued another walk and DeMeo went to the bullpen, bringing in Fijal.

He was greeted by Jon Flynn, who executed a perfect suicide squeeze back to the pitcher that Fijal couldn’t handle, scoring Woonsocket’s fourth run. Fijal buckled down to get the final two outs, but Panthers were trailing by two.

“The ball hit to left field, before you know it they’re up,” DeMeo said. “Then they can start running the bases and doing their thing. We’re back on our heels, and we’re not that type of team.”

Johnston threatened one more time in the sixth inning, when Zach Coro reached on an infield pop-up that Woonsocket let drop in and Pennacchia reached on a fielder’s choice in which Woonsocket third baseman Alex Denoylle threw to second only to have Coro beat the throw.

That put runners on first and second for the Panthers with nobody out, and Woonsocket went to the bullpen for Manny Ceballos. He did the job, getting Bongiovanni to line out to right field and then inducing a 6-4-3 double play from Fijal to get out of the jam.

Johnston put the leadoff man on in the seventh, but Ceballos got a line-out and then stuck out Marc Conte and Jacob Podmaska to end the game.

On the day, Johnston pitchers walked 10 batters, one of which was intentional.

“I’m not down,” DeMeo said. “I thought we played the game well. But you can’t walk nine guys and make mental mistakes.”

The loss dropped the Panthers to 1-1, as they beat St. Raphael to open the season behind a strong outing on the mound from Bongiovanni. He’ll get the ball again today against Cranston East, as Johnston tries to bounce back.

“Joe’s the inning eater for us, so hopefully we can get six out of him and we’ll patch that seventh inning up,” DeMeo said.

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