WRENTHAM, Mass. – Some days the ball seems to always find the barrel of the bat and hits and runs are easy to come by. On other days, especially in the postseason, you need to find different ways to get runs home. It doesn’t always have to be exciting, just effective.
King Philip did just that in Saturday morning’s Div. 1 South preliminary round game at Lombard Field. The Warriors got two sacrifice flies and scored on a groundout, and also got stellar performance from sophomore starter Rudy Gately, to beat Quincy 4-0 and end a 12-year wait for a playoff win.
“Just get contact on the ball, make things happen, move people around, and you get runs there,” said KP coach Jeff Plympton, Jr. “That’s what we try. Sometimes the bats are hitting them over the outfielders’ heads and sometimes they’re not. You’ve just got to work with what you’ve got on the day.”
After putting two runners on with two outs in the first but not being able to bring one in, KP was able to score the opening run in the second. Matt DiFiore was hit by a pitch to leadoff the inning. He then stole second and advanced to third on a balk by Quincy starter Zach Donaghue. Mikey Malatesta drove in what turned out to be the game-winning run with a fly ball to center.
In the third, the Warriors doubled the lead in similar fashion. Gately (2-for-4) doubled to right to start the inning. Shawn Legere followed with a single to put runners at first and third. Legere reached second on an errant pick-off attempt on Gately at third, but then was promptly picked off at second for the first out. After Conor Cooke walked and stole second, Dan Nineve got his first RBI with a grounder to second.
“We try to win each inning,” Plympton explained. “Rudy goes out there and throws a hell of a game each inning, so it’s important to get that one, two, three, and then get back in and start hitting.”
As it turns out, that was all the offense that KP would need. Gately allowed at least one base runner in every inning, but never really felt in danger of giving up any runs. He struck out eight and got some help from his defense, especially his senior catcher Cooke, who threw out runners trying to steal second in both the second and the fifth.
“He’s had an absolute hell of a year,” Plympton said about Gately. “He’s got three pitches that just work for him and he keeps people off-balance.” Plympton also praised Cooke and the Brown University-commit’s work with the pitchers. “We have a pretty young staff and he’s done a fantastic job on just keeping them under control.”
The Warriors put the game away in the fifth with a pair of important insurance runs. Gately helped his own cause again with a leadoff single and stole both second and third. Legere walked and then Cooke followed with his second walk of the day, this one against Quincy reliever Joe Hennessey, to load the bases with no outs.
Nineve knocked a single through the drawn in infield to make it 3-0 and DiFiore drove in a run with a line out to center that scored Legere.
Although KP missed a chance to hang a big number on the Presidents, they continued to get the pitching and defense to make that lead hold up. After a one-out, infield single by Hennessey, third baseman Sean Sullivan was able to dive to his left and make a nice play across the diamond for the second out. Gately closed the door on the sixth by freezing the hitter with curve for his seventh strikeout of the day.
Quincy got a one-out hit in the seventh as well, but a soft liner to Brendan Weddleton at second put the Warriors on the brink of the win and Gately closed it out in style, dropping another nasty curveball for the strikeout that ended KP’s long wait for a playoff win.
King Philip (8-7) will travel to third-seed Xaverian on Monday afternoon. The Warriors are the fifth Hockomock League team, all from the Kelley-Rex division (Milford opted out of the playoffs) to reach the round of 16 in D1 South.
“I’ve always said that the Hock is probably one of the best leagues in the state,” said Plympton. “When I woke up and saw all those [scores], I thought, it sounds about right. It’s good to see, it’s good for us. We know we’re playing good competition.”