Rhode Island’s Little League Baseball champions are eliminated in Metro Region play

BRISTOL, Conn. — North Kingstown/Wickford Little League entered the Metro Regional baseball tournament in Bristol, Connecticut, over the weekend hoping to find a way to advance to the Little League World Series.

However, the Rhode Island representatives soon found out the road to Williamsport, Pa., is hard to get through. After facing tough competition and perhaps even tougher weather conditions, Rhode Island was eliminated from the tournament after falling to Connecticut, 13-2, on Monday night. The loss to Connecticut came after Rhode Island fell in the opening round, 17-7, to New York.

More: Rhode Island Little League champs drop opener to New York in regional tournament

Despite the team’s quick exit from the Metro tournament, Rhode Island showed some resilience late in the ball game. After allowing Connecticut to take a 7-0 lead, fueled by Alexander Mitchell’s first two at-bats, Rhode Island managed to load the bases at the bottom of the fourth inning with no outs.

The impressive batting eventually led to two runs for NK/W, cutting the lead to a more manageable five-run deficit. However, things got out of hand in the fifth inning as Connecticut plated six more runs, effectively ending the game by the run rule.

Rhode Island manager Justin Amaral declined to comment.

Connecticut manager Lorenzo Biscotto said, after losing their first game, 8-4, to New Jersey, the message heading into the Rhode Island game was that it comes down to one game at a time. He said he told his team to not look any further ahead than Monday night.

“We’re excited to have finally got this win. We were knocking on the door last year, but we didn;t get any wins last year when we played New Jersey and Rhode Island,” Biscotto said. “Tonight we were able to break through for East Lyme. It’s a big relief.”

Biscotto said his team used its experience and focused on the little things to come out on the winning side. He said his players showed a level of fight of their own.

“When we get our back against the wall, we try to learn as best we can from it,” he said. “That was a tough game the other night. That was a 6½-hour game and it tested us in every level mentally, physically, emotionally and we learned a lot of it.”

From a players standpoint, Mitchell faced Rhode Island hoping to rebound from a tough team batting performance in their first game. Mitchell specifically, took advantage of the Rhode Island pitching, connecting for a two-run triple in the top of the second inning to put the first runs on the board and then notching a two-run double in the fourth.

“I was really excited when I got that really big hit; that was really huge and put our team in the lead,” Mitchell said. “We had a tough game. We lost, 8-4, and they just punched us in the face. We didn’t have our A game, but we were confident.”

Biscotto attributed Mitchell’s and the team’s success to their attention to detail and working the counts well. As Connecticut progresses to the Metro Regional semifinals they will have to continue to hit well against an impressive New York team. Connecticut will face New York on Wednesday at 5 p.m. for a chance to reach the regional championship on Friday.