'Ace on mound' assures West win over Pilgrim

By Ryan D. Murray
Posted 4/26/18

By RYAN D. MURRAY Cranston West senior Brett Traficante pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out four and giving up two hits as the Falcons beat the Pilgrim Patriots 10-0 in five innings on Monday afternoon at Cranston High School West. The game was

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'Ace on mound' assures West win over Pilgrim

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Cranston West senior Brett Traficante pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out four and giving up two hits as the Falcons beat the Pilgrim Patriots 10-0 in five innings on Monday afternoon at Cranston High School West. The game was shortened due to the mercy-rule.

Traficante is the team’s ace on the mound. He had some tough breaks earlier in the season getting a couple of no-decisions against Lincoln and South Kingstown, where he left the mound with his team leading late in the game, but both times the opponent came back to win.

“Like anything, you can find the good things in the loss, you can find the bad things in a win sometimes and things that you need to work on,” West head coach Rob Malo said. “Losing those close games, hopefully it makes us grow as a team and be a little more competitive and able to finish down the stretch when you need it.”

On Monday afternoon Traficante and his team were running on all cylinders.

“Brett threw the ball well and our bats came alive,” West head coach Rob Malo said. “A few of the guys had multiple hits, so to jump out with five in the first always helps.  I’m happy with it.”

Evan Degaitas, a junior, led the Falcons with four hits, including an RBI double and scored three times. Anthony Cardi, a junior, added a double and three RBI and L.J. Felicio, also a junior, was 2-for-2 with a walk and one run scored.  

With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Matt Lombard and Traficante hit back-to-back singles to center, putting runners at the corners. Then, Cardi drove Lombardi in from third with a ground ball and put West up 1-0. Next, Drew Spirito walked and Felicio followed with a single to load the bases. Then, Tom Barbieri hit and RBI single past the shortstop and extended West’s edge to 2-0. With the bases reloaded, Brad Theis hit a shot to left field that went under the glove of Sean Blanchard and rolled back towards the fence, allowing three runs to score and making it 5-0.

“We spotted them five runs in the first inning, it’s hard to come back from that no matter what,” Pilgrim head coach Nolan Landy said. “We’re not a great offensive team, but you can’t spot a team five runs. That just sucked the wind right out of us and we were going through the motions in the end there.”

In the bottom of the fourth, West tacked on three more runs. With runners at second and third, Cardi ripped a 2-RBI double to left and scored Degaitas and Traficante, making it 7-0.

Then, in the bottom of the fifth, West ended the game. With one out and Matt Carvalho at third, Degaitas smoked a double down the third baseline to score Carvalho and put the Falcons up 9-0. Then, with two outs, and Degaitas, the winning run at third, Spirito hit a single to drive him in and finished the game prematurely at 10-0.

With the win, West improves to 4-2 while Pilgrim drops to 2-5.

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