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Poland falls in junior World Series
Poor first inning knocks team out
By ChARLES GROVE
The Poland 13-14 softball team spotted Warwick, R.I., a 5-0 first-inning lead and fell 9-3 on Thursday in the Junior League World Series.
The loss eliminates Poland from competitive play, though the team will play a friendly today against another losing quarterfinal team at 1:45 p.m.
Both teams racked up 13 hits in the seven-inning game but Warwick came up with the hits when it mattered most.
“We just never got the big hits,” Poland manager Matt Bobbey said. “We had plenty of hits to get girls on base but couldn’t get any hits to bring girls home. Their hits were big hits. Usually when you get 13 hits you’re going to score more than three runs.”
Things didn’t fall Poland’s way in the first inning. A dropped third strike allowed Warwick to get the leadoff runner on and after a few miscues in the field and a couple of hits, Poland was looking at a big deficit.
“There were a couple of funny plays that gave them two extra outs,” Bobbey said. “We probably should’ve gotten out of the inning only giving up one or three runs.”
Poland came back with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first, but that was all it could muster as Warwick added to its lead in the third, fourth and sixth innings.
Lauren Sienkiewicz, Ally Nittoli, Jackie Grisdale and Lexi Diaz each had two hits for Poland. Grisdale doubled, homered and drove in two runs.
Bobbey said the team had plenty to hang their hats on despite the exit.
“To get as far as we did is an amazing run,” Bobbey said. “Nine of the 10 teams here aren’t going to have it end the way they wanted to but we couldn’t ask for more from these girls. We told them they should be proud of what they accomplished.
“We still went 3-1 in pool play and beat some of the best teams in the world.”