After a dramatic comeback victory over Narragansett in their playoff opener last Thursday, Tiverton ran up against a hot Prout pitcher Monday at home, dropping their second playoff game 4-0. Tigers batters were limited to just four hits.

The loss squandered a fine pitching performance by Tiverton’s Justin Dore who allowed only six with no walks. As last Thursday, Tiger errors again proved costly.

The loss means that Tiverton faces a do-or-die home rematch against Narragansett Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. (after the Sakonnet Times goes to press). Narragansett rebounded from its Thursday loss to Tiverton by beating Smithfield Monday to set up the second game against Tiverton.

Playoff seeds don’t necessarily mean much, something #1 ranked Tiverton quickly realized as its game against #9 seed Narragansett unfolded Thursday afternoon in Tiverton.

The 18-4 Tigers trailed 10-10 Narragansett by a score of 4-3 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. On base for Tiverton were Zach Pieroni by way of a walk and Alec Murray who had been hit by a pitch.

Tigers leadoff hitter Zach Greene stepped to the plate and quickly found himself down 0-2.

Greene kept his focus though and slammed a fastball deep down the left field line for a triple, driving in both runners and giving Tiverton the lead going into the seventh.

They found more trouble in that final inning when a Narragansett runner reached third with two out. But shortstop Justin Dore snagged a tough short-hop grounder to his left to save the game.

Tiverton pitcher Leo Feliciano went the distance for the Tigers. He endured a rocky first inning during which Narragansett scored two runs on four hits but settled down as the game unfolded.

Tiverton found itself playing from behind for much of the contest and was not helped by uncharacteristic errors — three of them — along with a costly base-running miscue.

Tiverton will need to improve on that as the playoffs continue, coach Bob Murray said after the game which he believes his team might have won 6-1 but for the mistakes.

“Right now we are making too many errors … but we won — kids make mistakes” and we hopefully learn from them.

On the positive side, Coach Murray said, we had clutch hitting for the first time in awhile … Logan’s (Maitland) base hit with the bases loaded, Zach’s base hit …”

That sixth inning triple was a pivotal moment for Tiverton, the coach said.

“He battled and battled — that’s what I expect from him. That was huge.”

Tiverton scored two runs in the 3rd inning to tie the score at 2-2. The teams each scored in the 4th to make it 3-3, before Tiverton again fell behind when Narragansett scored in the top of the 6th to take a 4-3 lead.

Tiverton will host the winner of Friday’s game between #4 seed Warwick and #5 seed Prout in Monday at 4 p.m.