Top-seeded Rebels down Panthers in Final Four

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The South Kingstown baseball team rolled to a 17-1 record in Division I-B during the regular season, and its dominance wasn’t impeded in the Final Four.

The Rebels swept Johnston in their best-of-three series, cruising to a 10-1 victory in Game 1 on Thursday night, before a six-run fifth inning erased a 4-2 Johnston lead in Game 2, as South Kingstown powered back to win 9-5.

“We had a couple of mental miscues in that inning, and against a great team like that, we can’t give up outs,” Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo said of that fifth inning in Game 2. “You have to make the easy plays, you have to be covering the bag when you’re supposed to be, and they took advantage of it.”

Johnston starter Jake Pratte yielded a single to Greg Ballinger to start the fifth, before hitting Sam Kenyon with a pitch and allowing another single to Asa Nyblom to load the bases with no one down.

An RBI single by Matt Gutelius brought the Rebels within one, 4-3, and two batters later, All-State catcher Liam McGill cleared the bases with a grand slam that hooked around the foul pole in right field to give his team a 7-4 advantage.

Ballinger would record his second single of the inning to cap the six-run explosion, as he drove in Brendan Blessing to push the lead out to 8-4.

“You can just say the ball went over the fence, but none of our balls went over the fence,” DeMeo said. “The grand slam definitely took the wind out of our sails.”

The big inning was certainly deflating for Johnston, which outplayed South Kingstown over the first four innings.

After John Willette singled home Jake Coro in the bottom of the first, Kevin Roberts gave South Kingstown its first lead of the game in the second, as his double plated Gutelius and Brian Turcotte to make it 2-1.

However, the Panthers continued to fight with their backs against the wall.

Zach Clesas led off the third by getting hit by a pitch, and he quickly moved to second when Sam Kenyon walked Willette on four pitches.

Nick Raposo followed with a sacrifice bunt, but Kenyon raced off the mound and fired a wild throw to first, allowing Clesas and Willette to scurry home to give Johnston a 3-2 lead.

Center fielder Joe Michael increased Johnston’s lead to 4-2 a few pitches later when he roped a double off Kenyon to bring Raposo home.

Johnston seemed to be in full command of the game, with Pratte posting a shutdown inning in the fourth.

But McGill would deliver the momentum-swinging homer in the fifth to alter the game completely.

McGill and Clesas traded RBI singles in the sixth inning, but the Panthers couldn’t mount a comeback, as South Kingstown secured a trip to McCoy Stadium.

“This was like the public school championship for the state and we came in second,” DeMeo said. “We played them four times, they beat us four times, so there are no excuses. Every game was a battle, but they were on the winning end.”

It was all South Kingstown in Game 1.

After Willette left the yard with a solo home run in the top of the first, the Rebels plated 10 unanswered from that point on.

They scored three in the first and six in the third, as five players recorded RBI hits and ace Greg Kay dazzled on the mound, going six innings while allowing just one run.

“They’re relentless from one to nine,” DeMeo said of South Kingstown’s lineup. “From McGill at the top spot all the way to Turcotte, they just swing the bats, they’re patient. They wait for you to make mistakes, and our guys were a little impatient. That’s the difference.”

Johnston will now graduate 11 seniors from its team, many of whom were key contributors.

But although that large group of seniors would’ve loved to win a title, it went out as one of the top four teams in a 22-team Division I. To make it as far as Johnston did certainly isn’t easy.

“We had an outstanding year,” DeMeo said. “Hopefully after the pain of today goes away they’ll realize what a great season it was for us. It isn’t by luck to get here. It’s by hard work.”

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