BRISTOL, Conn. — The girls from Cranston Western are going to the World Series .
Rhode Island’s Little League Softball all-stars, simply put, are the best in New England. A rout of Connecticut in their regional opener was not to be outdone by a curtain-call shutout against Maine. And a comeback win against Massachusetts had the 11- and 12-year-old all-stars one triumph away from the World Series in Greenville, North Carolina.
The Ocean State again showcased its magic in the championship. The Little Leaguers from the nation’s smallest state topped neighboring Connecticut, 6-3, and left the New England bracket painted in blue and white on Friday at A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Training Center in Bristol, Connecticut.
Rhode Island now advances to the World Series for the first time since 2015. The team has a first-round bye and awaits the winner of the game pitting the West Region against the Mid-Atlantic Region. Rhode Island is to take the field next at 1 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 5.
“I don't think I ever would have imagined myself doing something like this in my softball career,” Isabella Marcano said. “Definitely a very big step. I think it's going to be super fun.”
“It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to the World Series,” Ella Lamarre said. “I know some of the girls on the team will be nervous, but if we stick together, I think we have a good shot.”
Marcano started the game with a double to the right side and Alexa Okolowitcz followed with a triple to the left-center gap. Okolowitcz slid under the tag and Marcano pushed the tempo with her table-setting double. Aggressiveness and team efforts hallmarked Cranston Western’s undefeated run at the regional tournament.
“It's fun because usually after some people start getting going, the whole team gets going,” Lamarre said. “And we just get runs on the board.”
“We're a hard-working team and no matter what, if we're down or up, we always have to keep trying,” Marcano said. “We can never think that we're better than the other team just because we're up in the score.”
Lamarre singled to the right side, driving Okolowitcz home for a run, and after back-to-back walks, Rhode Island had reached safely with its first five hitters. Two runners were stranded but two runs for Marcano, who owned the pitcher's circle against Milford, was the start the Ocean State needed.
“This team has done an amazing thing,” Rhode Island coach Lalo Marcano said. “Something that they probably don't know yet that they're going to remember for years to come, and I'm very excited for the near future and what comes after this.”
If this iteration of Rhode Island’s all-stars has the fortune similar to the 2015 Warwick North team that reached the World Series final , their summer is just beginning. Maybe they’ll re-create the memorable summer that their assistant coach, Craig Stinson, enjoyed. His 1996 Cranston Western Little League Baseball team went to the tournament’s final game.
Only one softball team from New England has won the Little League Softball World Series. That championship-winning team? The 1979 North Providence West Little League club that defeated Florida, 5-2. There’s a blueprint and lineage with this Rhode Island team that certainly captured the regional tournament’s attention.
“Our senses were kicking in,” Marcano said at the start of the title game.
“We're doing this, we're in the championship. And I think that we just used that … to our advantage, and I think we just battled the whole game.”
Rhode Island added two more runs in the third inning on Lamarre’s single that scored Okolowitcz from second and Lawson Bastia’s single up the middle. After Connecticut sprayed three runs across the fourth and fifth frames, Cranston Western’s bottom of the order, which proved crucial in the rally against Massachusetts, started the game-breaking sequence.
A hit by Laila Murphy, a fielder's choice from Audriana Garcia and a walk by Mia Vieira loaded the bases for Marcano. She delivered a two-run double to right to cap the scoring and a 3-for-3 day at the plate.
She also racked up nine strikeouts and limited Connecticut to just two earned runs on five hits.
“I'm excited to see what our team can do and what I can do and what we bring to the table in North Carolina,” Marcano said.
“We worked for this and we finally can say that we're champions,” Lalo Marcano said.
Rhode Island at New England Regional tournament
Sunday, July 21: Rhode Island 13, Connecticut 3
Monday, July 22: Rhode Island 11, Maine 0
Wednesday, July 24: Rhode Island 6, Massachusetts 5
Friday, July 26: Rhode Island 6, Connecticut 3
jrousseau@providencejournal.com
On X: @ByJacobRousseau
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Island punches its ticket to the Little League Softball World Series
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