La Salle baseball keeps grinding; how it fared against South Kingstown

PROVIDENCE — The next couple of weeks could do everything to change how La Salle will remember this baseball season.

This hasn’t been a vintage version of the Rams to date but there is still hope. The runner-up in Division I last year has the talent on paper to make another deep playoff push and Tuesday's game at Toti Baseball Diamond served as evidence.

Matt DeStefanis was in command on the mound and his offense put together a pair of damaging innings. La Salle handled South Kingstown, 8-3, and dented a bid by the Rebels to keep pace with unbeaten Bishop Hendricken atop the league standings.

More: Hendricken faces Cumberland in a rematch of last year's baseball title game; which team prevailed?

“We’re just working to get to the playoffs,” DeStefanis said. “We may not be as smooth as last year, but we’re grinding every game trying to get back to the spot we were in last year.”

The Rams have now won five of their last seven and earned a split with South Kingstown after a 6-5 road loss on Saturday morning. La Salle has two games left with Pilgrim over the next week and will finish no worse than .500 in league play.

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Brady Collins triggered the first four-run rally under the spring sunshine with an RBI double and Ed Walsh started the second with an RBI single.

“We’re trying to remind ourselves that we can win a championship, and we fully believe we can,” Collins said. “We’ve got to all do our jobs and stick together as a team.”

Any such pursuit involves some grit, and the Rams flashed some in the bottom of the fourth inning. Nolan Urian seemed to be gaining steam after retiring six straight, but La Salle stopped the right-hander cold with two singles, two doubles and three walks. Collins erased a 1-0 deficit by grounding one over the bag at third, Caden Calabro cracked a ground-rule double to deep left and Angelo Fuscellaro sent a sharp RBI single to center as the Rams built a 4-1 cushion.

“I knew we needed to break the ice and I was trying to do it,” Collins said. “I knew once we did it, we were going to roll with it.”

La Salle (9-7) wound up batting around in the bottom of the fourth and sent 10 more men to the plate in the bottom of the sixth. Walsh’s liner over the third baseman and Nate Bautista’s single to center were the key swings as the Rams put this one away. It was an 8-1 game when Calabro was retired on a sharp grounder up the line to first.

“I have such confidence in all of them,” DeStefanis said. “They’re going to be behind me and get runs. Those guys are going to do a job.”

South Kingstown (13-3) left two in scoring position in the top of the second before taking the lead in its next trip. Brayden Rosen dropped an RBI double along the line in right and the Rebels seemed in position to add on against DeStefanis, a junior left-hander who worked in the finals series against Cumberland last June. He recorded a strikeout looking to escape and allowed just three more men to reach safely before the top of the seventh.

“He’s a dog,” Collins said. “He’s a great player. We knew he was going to throw well.”

The Rebels have a pair of games remaining with Smithfield and now look almost certain to finish behind the unbeaten Hawks in the regular season. The real proving ground will emerge later this month, and South Kingstown remains ahead of a tight pack that includes rival North Kingstown, Cumberland, Cranston East, Portsmouth, Coventry, Moses Brown, the Sentinels and the Patriots. La Salle joins that group among teams that could prove uncomfortable first opponents with the year on the line.

“It’s definitely difficult,” DeStefanis said. “We’re facing everybody’s best pitcher. Every team is trying their hardest to beat us.

“There’s definitely more weight on our backs this year.”

South Kingstown 001 000 2 — 3 7 1

La Salle 000 404 x — 8 10 0

Nolan Urian, Tim Menard (4), Brayden Rosen (7) and Jordan Chaloux. Matt DeStefanis, Aiden Ciprian (7) and Nate Bautista.

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On X: @BillKoch25

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: La Salle baseball keeps grinding; how it fared against South Kingstown