Baseball Game Preview: East Providence Townies vs. Coventry Oakers

The East Providence Townies will take on the Coventry Oakers at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. East Providence's hitters haven't had much luck over their past three contests, but Friday's matchup will give them a chance to turn things around.

East Providence is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Rhode Island's top teams: Moses Brown, who was ranked 14th at the time (East Providence was ranked eighth). The Townies' pitcher stepped up to hand the Quakers a 1-0 shutout on Wednesday. The game snapped a strange streak: the last three times these teams have met, it?s been the away team that?s taken home the W.

Dylan Annicelli

Base on Balls Against

04/24/25 vs Lincoln	2
04/16/25 @ Westerly	2
04/01/25 @ Pilgrim	2
05/14/25 vs Moses Brown	1
04/30/25 vs Cranston West	1

Not much got past Dylan Annicelli, who gave up just three hits and racked up nine Ks to keep Moses Brown off the board. Annicelli also tossed a walk, which is notable because East Providence is undefeated when he allows at most two walks, but 4-5 otherwise.

On the hitting side, East Providence's win was truly a team effort as three different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Gavin Palombo, who went 1-for-3 with two stolen bases and one RBI. That's the most stolen bases Palombo has posted since back in April.

Portsmouth hit Coventry with a five-run first inning on Wednesday, which goes a long way in explaining the final result. The Oakers lost 7-1 to the Patriots. The Oakers haven't had much luck with the Patriots recently, as the team has come up short the last six times they've met.

East Providence's victory bumped their record up to 10-5. As for Coventry, their loss dropped their record down to 6-10.

East Providence might still be hurting after the 10-0 defeat they got from Coventry in their previous meeting back in June of 2021. Will the Townies have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more baseball content.