Baseball Game Preview: West Warwick Wizards vs. North Providence Cougars

The West Warwick Wizards will look to take advantage of their home field for the first time this season as they take on the North Providence Cougars at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

West Warwick is coming home in high spirits after they had to open their season on the road against Toll Gate. The Wizards' pitchers stepped up to hand the Titans a 5-0 shutout on Friday.

Anthony Burt

Batters Struck Out (Career)

04/04/25 @ Toll Gate	9
06/08/24 @ Rogers	8
06/02/24 vs Exeter-West Greenwich	7
04/17/24 vs Paul Cuffee	7
05/03/24 @ Tolman	6

Anthony Burt was a major factor no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only one hit while striking out nine over 4.1 innings pitched. Those nine strikeouts gave him a new career-high. He was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two RBI and one double.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Jair Blanco, who scored two runs and stole five bases while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. Those two runs gave him a new career-high.

Meanwhile, North Providence won against East Greenwich on Wednesday with four runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Saturday. The Cougars walked away with a 4-0 win over Pilgrim. The victory was just business as usual for the Cougars, who after three games remain undefeated this season.

The result came thanks to Vin Pontarelli's shutout, as he gave up just four hits.

At the plate, North Providence saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Mike Ryan, who scored two runs while going 1-for-2.

West Warwick was able to grind out a solid win over North Providence in their previous matchup back in May of 2019, winning 8-5. Will the Wizards repeat their success, or do the Cougars have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.