EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School baseball team will not get a chance to fully defend its Division II title after the Townies were defeated by visiting Westerly 4-0 Monday night, June 3, in a winner-take-all contest in the Pod 1 final.

The Bulldogs, seeded first in the playoffs, scored all of their runs in a fifth inning outburst. The loss ended East Providence's season with a 16-6-1 overall record in league play.

Westerly advances to the D-II championship series beginning Thursday night, June 6, at Rhode Island College opposite third-seeded East Greenwich, which went 3-0 in the postseason to win Pod 2. The Avengers will be looking to avenge their 2-1 loss to EP in the 2023 best-of-three league title series.

Right-hander Zach Miner threw a complete game Monday night for Westerly, which saw its record in league games improve to 18-3-1. The junior went all seven innings, allowed seven hits, walked one, struck out five and hit a batter.

Tyler Dicecco suffered the loss for the Townies. EP's junior righty went 5-2/3 innings. All four Bulldog runs were earned. He allowed eight hits, struck out six, walked three and hit two batters. Tim Robitaille tossed an inning and a third in relief, striking out two and walking one while not giving up a hit.

There's a pretty tried and true axiom in baseball. If a team threatens to score early but doesn't, then is more likely the opposition will find a way to bring runs around and win. Westerly did just that to the Townies on Monday.

East Providence put runners in scoring position in each of its first four at-bats, but could not plate any tallies.

In the first, Aidan Martins led off with an infield single and Kyler Lorenz slapped a base hit up the middle to put two on with none out. Miner, however, got one out on a fielder's choice, a second out on another infielder grounder as Martins was tagged out at home trying to score. And the final out on a grounder to second.

In the second, Brian Rutkowski singled with one down for the Townies. After another out, Max Correiro added another base hit before Miner enticed another groundout to end the threat.

In the third, Kyler Lorenz led off with a bloop single into short left then went to second as the ball got away from the Westerly fielder. Brother Nolan Lorenz next laced a single to right field. The ball, though, proved to be hit hit too hard for Kyler attempting to score as he was thrown out at the plate. Miner struck out the next batter and handled a grounder back to the mound to conclude the inning.

In the fourth inning, Dicecco created a bit of a stir by doubling with two out. But Miner dashed the minor threat by fanning the final hitter of the frame.

The Westerly starter set the stage for his mates to do something on offense, which they finally did in the fifth.

The first two runners reached before Grayson Simmons ripped a double to left to score the first Bulldogs run. Andrew Bozek followed with a sharp single up the middle, scoring two more.

Jack Tenuta, the tough-luck loser on the hill the night prior in a 2-0 loss to the Townies to force Monday's one-off meeting for the pod title, next crushed a Dicecco offering about 345 feet for a homer over the left-centerfield fence to make it 4-0.

The Townies went relatively quietly the rest of the way.

EP put a runner on with two outs in the fifth, but Miner again recorded a strikeout to end the inning.

The Townies did nothing in the sixth except exchange a few pleasantries with the Bulldogs upon the last out of the inning. Nothing of note arose from the semi-heated conversation.

And in the seventh, Miner did walk a batter and give up an infield single with two down before he got the last EP batter to ground meekly to first for the final out of the game and 2024 season for the Townies.