South Kingstown baseball is on a roll; who led the Rebels to their sixth win in a row
SOUTH KINGSTOWN — You’d have to squint pretty hard to find fault with South Kingstown’s performance on Friday afternoon.
The Rebels are rolling along atop the Division I baseball standings, and these seven innings offered clues as to why. Jonah Monnes was sharp on the mound, his defense was error free and the offense produced up and down the batting order.
South Kingstown’s latest rock-solid effort ended in a 9-1 victory over Moses Brown at Curtis Corner Middle School. Monnes retired the first 13 men he faced and Liam Sagal enjoyed a big day in the nine hole as the Rebels captured a sixth straight to open the season.
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“Our roster top to bottom — even guys on the bench — can contribute,” Monnes said. “There’s not a weakness. We all have so much talent.”
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Three runs in the bottom of the fourth and five more in the bottom of the sixth eventually put the Quakers away under the cool sunshine. South Kingstown was relentless to the tune of 10 hits and four walks, and all but one of its nine starters reached base safely. Sagal knocked a pair of singles and a double, scored two runs and drove in two more while sparking the lineup from the bottom.
“We’ve been hot,” Sagal said. “Keeping the lineup going and turning it over is our job.”
Brandon Westerfield’s run-scoring single through the middle in the third gave the Rebels the lead for good. Nick Vellone’s fielder’s choice, Sagal’s single through the left side and a grounder to second from Monnes broke open what was a 1-0 game. South Kingstown went 1-2-3 in the fifth before rallying again in the sixth.
“We’ve fulfilled expectations, and even a little bit more,” Monnes said. “Each guy has done his part and a little bit more.”
Vellone’s double to right center and Sagal’s double to the corner in left chased home another pair in the sixth. Moses Brown (2-3) committed a couple of errors and Tateos Kassabian chipped in a pinch-hit RBI single to left. The Rebels more than doubled their advantage to put it out of reach and Quinn Matos fired a scoreless top of the seventh.
Monnes was in command from the outset. The left-hander didn’t go to a three-ball count until the fifth and was untouched until Henry Ballou’s sharp grounder past the mound went for an infield single. Consecutive doubles to left by Dylan Winslow and Tucker DeWolf opening the sixth handed the Quakers their lone run, but Monnes retired the next three men to finish his outing nicely.
“I felt very sharp,” Monnes said. “All my pitches were working. I just wanted to get strike one and then strike two.”
South Kingstown (6-0) started building toward this type of success late last season. The Rebels were just 8-10 overall but gained momentum throughout the second half. They eliminated Cranston West and Smithfield from the playoffs before suffering a second one-run defeat against rival North Kingstown, a team that finished six games ahead of them during the regular season.
“At the end of last year we were getting hot,” Sagal said. “We went into the playoffs and had a decent run. This year I think we felt something different — we felt like it was going to be a good year.”
Monnes made a postseason start against perennial power Bishop Hendricken as a freshman in 2022. There could be another to come in June, as both teams are trending toward a top seed and favorite status. South Kingstown and the Hawks will meet on Tuesday in a 4:15 p.m. first pitch at Old Mountain Field.
“We’ve been playing with each other since the Little League days,” Monnes said. “It’s just an awesome group of guys. We’re very tight.”
Moses Brown 000 001 0 — 1 4 3
South Kingstown 001 305 x — 9 10 0
Brayden Menard, Kazuya Bojarski (5), Camden Lussier (6) and Henry Ballou; Jonah Monnes, Quinn Matos (7) and Jordan Chaloux.
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: South Kingstown tops Moses Brown, 9-1
