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Rhode Island
RI is off to the Little League Softball regional title game; here’s how they did it
BRISTOL, Conn. — Cranston Western Little League Softball was down to its last six outs.
The Rhode Island team stomped its way through the New England Regional tournament until Massachusetts carried a lead into the fifth inning of the winner’s bracket final on Wednesday night. But this Ocean State team is making waves this summer and has something to prove.
Rhode Island commandeered a lead in the bottom half of the frame on Alexa Okolowitcz’s blistering line-drive double that capped a stunning comeback. Cranston Western closed the door on Massachusetts returning the favor and walked away with a 6-5 win and a spot in Friday’s winner-take-all championship at A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Training Center in Bristol, Connecticut.
“It feels really good just knowing that was the game-winning hit,” Okolowitcz said. “Our team did a really good job with rallying in the dugout and that really got me motivated to go out there and just hit and do my best.”
Okolowitcz’s double, with two outs, was nearly snagged by the Massachusetts’ shortstop, but the two-hole hitter found the gap and scored Isabella Marcano from first. Okolowitcz’s winner was the biggest hit of the game – and of the season to date – but Rhode Island’s four-run fifth inning was a team effort.
The Ocean State, stocked with 11- and 12-year-old all-stars, sent eight batters to the plate in the decisive fifth frame. As the rally started to swell, there was a feeling of a special night in the making for the Rhode Island fans in attendance. Laila Murphy, in the eight-hole, started the rally by looping a single into left field and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Lylah Riley returned with a bunt back to the circle that went for a hit and RI had runners on the corners.
“I think as a team, we just started a rally,” Marcano said. “I think that once one person does something to get us all going, I think we just all follow.”
How they got there: Cranston Western does what it does best and earns Little League softball state title
Rhode Island plated its first two runs on Audriana Garcia’s sacrifice bunt. Garcia reached on an error to keep Cranston Western unscathed in the frame as they trailed just 5-4. Then with one out in the stanza, Juliana Borges, out of the 12-hole, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Garcia to third and sent the lineup back to the top of the order.
And from there, Marcano and Okolowitcz took care of business with a single up-the-middle to knot the game and then Okolowitcz ended it on the first pitch of her at-bat.
“This week has been something that I never would have imagined would have happened, especially us making it this far,” Marcano said.
“I just appreciate [friends and family] and them watching because it is important,” Okolowitcz said. “And their support has been really big to our team and we’re very grateful for that.”
Craig Stinson has his Little League memories, but wants daughter Hailee to create her own
Massachusetts scored a pair of runs in the third and fourth innings to recover from a 2-1 deficit after the first. But Marcano, who picked up the win and went 3-for-3 at the plate, sat them down in order in the fifth to stage the rally.
Rhode Island awaits the winner of Massachusetts and Connecticut in Thursday’s losers’ bracket final before playing on Friday at noon in Bristol. The championship game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
“Everybody put a little bit into it,” Rhode Island coach, Lalo Marcano said of the comeback. “Once the hits came together, the pitching came together, defense came together, it was an all-team effort and I love that. It was not just one or two, it was everybody that made this win happen.”
Rhode Island at New England Regionals
Sunday, July 21: Rhode Island 13, Connecticut 3.
Monday, July 22: Rhode Island 11, Maine 0.
Wednesday, July 24: Rhode Island 6, Massachusetts 5.
jrousseau@providencejournal.com
On X: @ByJacobRousseau
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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Rhode Island
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:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/Scott-Naso-022526-1-079e2e33c43a473590695ebdb06147b3.jpg?ssl=1 "Single Dad Says Grandparents’ Rights Trial Has Cost Him More Than 0K, but He'll Do ‘Whatever It Takes’ to Keep Daughter Safe")
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