The Cumberland Clippers will square off against the Cranston West Falcons at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Cumberland is coming into the game hot, having won their last nine games.
Cumberland is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Rhode Island's top teams: Pilgrim, who was ranked 20th at the time (Cumberland was ranked third). The Clippers' pitchers stepped up to hand the Patriots a 1-0 shutout on Tuesday.
Cumberland got a great performance from Marcus Gomes as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit over five innings pitched.
At the plate, Cumberland saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Andrew Nocera, who went 1-for-4 with one home run. That home run marked the first that Nocera has launched this season.
Meanwhile, it was a Battle of the Birds when Cranston West took on Barrington on Saturday. The Falcons blew past the Eagles 7-1. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Falcons.
Alex Milano made a big impact while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out nine batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits. He is becoming a predictor of Cranston West's success: when he allows at most one earned run the team is 2-1 (and 9-11 when he doesn't). Milano was also big at the plate, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Chris Barboza, who went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and one run. Those two stolen bases gave him a new career-high. Logan Taylor was another key player, going 1-for-4 with two runs and one RBI.
Cumberland's win was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 16-4. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.6 runs on average over those games. As for Cranston West, their win bumped their record up to 11-12.
Cumberland came out on top in a nail-biter against Cranston West in their previous meeting on May 2nd, sneaking past 4-3. Do the Clippers have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Falcons turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
