Sports
Johnston Grays Win 11-10 Over Ocean State Dogs
The Johnston Grays beat the Ocean State Dogs with a walk-off run in the ninth inning on July 19.
The Johnston Grays secured a hard-fought 11-10 win during an intense game on July 19 at Cimilore Field against the Ocean State Dogs — a nearly exact repeat of the teams' June 29 contest, with one team nailing own the game with a late score.
This time, the back-and-forth battle ended with the Grays hitting a walk-off run in the bottom of the ninth, giving them the win and improving their record to 6-18 in the Rhode Island Independent Amateur Baseball League.
Early defense by both teams kept the scoreboard blank through the first inning.
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Johnston's Kevin Barber posted the Grays' first score in the bottom of the second, and the Dogs responded in the visitors' half of the third when catcher Greg Nugent hit a pop-fly that hit Grays' third baseman Avi Taveras in the wrist, allowing second basemen Brandon Cota to score.
Ocean State went on to open up a 8-1 lead after first baseman Kale Henry's hit to break the tie, a DH Jon Smithers 3-RBI double, and an error by Grays' first baseman Ilya Menyaylov allowed two more runs.
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The Grays started chipping away slowly at the deficit in the bottom of the fourth, when Ben Tavares made it home after a ground ball and a walk, making the score 8-2. A sacrifice fly by Johnston's Ari Tavares brought home Mike Topazio to cut the lead to 8-3.
Johnston continued to fight back in the fifth, scoring two more runs by catcher Edwin Rivera and extra hitter Kevin Barber.
The Grays' defense held the Dogs scoreless, and the Johnston offense rallied in the bottom of the seventh and tied the contest, 8-8, when manager and right fielder Rob Tedesco made it home on an Ocean State error.
New recruit Murphy Santos took the mound for the Grays in the top of the eighth. He had a rocky start to his debut, hitting Nugent with a pitch and giving up two runs.
In the bottom of the eighth, Grays second baseman Robert Kazarian hit a ground-ball single and followed up with three stolen bases to make the score 10-9. With Edwin Rivera on third, Kevin Barber attempted to steal second, and was tagged out — but not before Rivera stole home and tied the game 10-10.
Santos responded with a strong ninth inning for the Grays, and Johnston took advantage of back-to-back walks off Dogs' pitcher Kale Henley to put runners in scoring position in the home half of the stanza.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Ari Taveras brought home Mike Topazio home for the 11-10 win.
Overall, the Grays have six wins and are in eleventh place in the league — a big improvement from last year, when they had only one win.
"I'm very excited about our new addition to the team," said Tedesco of Santos, who went 4-for-5 at the plate, in addition to his strong pitching. "I think that with all of our new players, hopefully we will see a turnaround in the team."
As for next year, Tedesco said: "I think we will just keep improving and our record will just keep going up — we've made all of the mistakes we can make, and now we're fixing them."
The Grays next and final games will be at . On July 23, Johnston is scheduled to face the Rhody Reds, who are first in the league, while on July 24, they're set to play the East Providence Marlins, a team that is just above them in the league standings. Both games will start at 1 p.m.
Inter-town rivals the Johnston Pools (16-6) are scheduled to play July 24 at Providence Country Day School against the East Providence Knights. Watch JohnstonPatch for coverage of upcoming Pools games.
