Pitchers shine as Barrington defeats Portsmouth, 2-1

Barrington All-Stars advance to finals; Portsmouth to play against Tiverton

Posted 7/10/18

The Barrington Majors All-Star team scored one run in the first inning, another in the third, and held on to defeat Portsmouth, 2-1, in a District II winner's bracket showdown on Monday night, July …

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Pitchers shine as Barrington defeats Portsmouth, 2-1

Barrington All-Stars advance to finals; Portsmouth to play against Tiverton

Posted

The Barrington Majors All-Star team scored one run in the first inning, another in the third, and held on to defeat Portsmouth, 2-1, in a District II winner's bracket showdown on Monday night, July 9, in Portsmouth.

Barrington's Griffin Crain and Portsmouth's John Mass pitched well for their respective teams. 

Each pitcher limited the opposing batters to just five hits. Crain pitched a complete game, striking out 10 Portsmouth batters, while Mass lasted into the bottom of the fifth before handing over the ball to Seth Whittington. Mass finished the game with seven strikeouts.

Barrington Manager Tom Crain said he was very happy with his son's pitching performance and with some stellar defensive plays by his team late in the game.

"A complete game is great," said Mr. Crain. "They're a good team. They battle hard, but Griffin was efficient and our defense made some plays when we had to. That was big."

Portsmouth Manager Craig Spaner said he was also impressed with Griffin Crain's performance.

"He's a good pitcher. He threw strikes. He kept us a little off-balance," said Mr. Spaner. "I think we started to figure it out a little later in the game, put a nice rally together, but we stranded two guys. We have to be a little more aggressive."

Trailing 2-0, Portsmouth built a rally in the top of the sixth inning. Nick Spaner hit a pop fly foul ball near home plate to lead off the inning, but Barrington catcher Quinn Murphy tracked down the towering shot and hauled it in for the first out. Portsmouth's Mass then singled and reached second on a wild pitch. 

Portsmouth's Shane Harvey then lifted a fly ball toward right. A hard-charging Grant Culton caught the fly ball, but his throw back to Crain sailed a little bit over the pitcher's head, allowing Mass to reach third. Whittington then singled, scoring Mass and cutting Barrington's lead in half, at 2-1. 

But with two outs and the tying run at first, Barrington's second baseman Gabe Tanous made a nice play on a hard-hit grounder, scooping up the ball and tossing to Trevor Snow who was covering second base. The force-out sealed the 2-1 victory for Barrington.

"That was back to the meat of their order," said Mr. Crain. "They put the ball in play, got some base hits and runners on base. It was a little pressure, but I was really happy with our guys in the field. With the tying run on base we were able to make plays in the field to seal it. 

"Gabe to Trevor, second to short, with the nice put-out. Right field, Grant running in to make that play. Sometimes kids are out there and they're not paying attention, and they let that ball drop. That would have been a big deal."

Barrington built its lead early in the game. In the first inning, Crain singled and then advanced to second and third on two wild pitches. Crain later scored on a Portsmouth error. 

Tanous led off the third inning with a single and reached second on an error. Tanous made his way to third on a pass-ball and then scored on a wild pitch. 

"We knew it was going to be a close game, and we knew it was going to be a battle," said Mr. Spaner. About his defense, the Portsmouth manager added: "It's very important. You can't give up the routine play. It makes it more difficult on the offensive end if you don't have the defense." 

With the loss, Portsmouth dropped into the elimination bracket and will play against Tiverton on Wednesday night. Barrington will play the winner of that game on Sunday, July 15. 

Mr. Spaner said his team would like another shot at Barrington.

"Yeah, absolutely. We've had good battles over the years. I want to say the last three times we played them, they were all 5-2 games," he said. "We took two of the three. They're always battles. You're not going to see a 14-2 game. It is good baseball."

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