Townies Win Baseball JV Tourney with Four Wins in Two days. Three Wins on Sunday

EP defeats Hendricken 1-0 in 8 innings. 3 games Sunday - 3 Complete game pitching performances for wins

EP wins JV baseball tournament with 1-0 8th inning win over Hendricken.

Andrea Annicelli Photo

Kyle Desrosiers gets 8 inning complete game shutout win Sunday over Hendricken.

Andrea Annicelli Photo

First year JV Head Coach Nick Karalekas mobbed by his players after win.

Andrea Annicelli Photo

Kyle Desrosiers shut out Hawks with complete game 92 pitch win.

Jim Desrosier Photo

Posted Sunday, May 19, 2024 9:20 am

Sports Desk

The East Providence High School JV baseball team won the Justin Rocha Memorial JV Tournament held at EPHS over this past weekend. The Townies took the tourney by playing and winning 4 games over 2 days. EP played and won 3 of those games in back to back action on Sunday May 19th. Kyle Desrosiers needed only 92 pitches to shutout the tourney favorite Bishop Hendricken. The game was scoreless until the Townies broke the ice in the last of the 8th inning. With two runners on base a groundball brought in the winning run as the Townie players and fans celebrated. Umpires did not allow the post game handshake between teams due to a 7th inning incident. An EP player attempted a steal of second and was clearly tagged out. The Hendricken player making the tag was ejected from the game for inappropriate actions after making the out. The game continued with no further incident until the winning run crossed the plate for East Providence. More specific game details to follow.

The RI Interscholastic league does not organize a JV tournament and East Providence Varsity Head Coach Bobby Rodericks offered to sponsor a league tourney. "I thought it important to have JV kids from throughout Rhode Island participate in a tournament," said Rodericks. 12 high schools participated: Barrington, La Salle, Hendricken, Cranston West, Cranston East, Burrillville, Smithfield, Mt. Hope, Chariho, Ponagansett, Johnston and East Providence.

The three wins by East Providence today featured complete game pitching performances by Owen Richards against Barrington, Jayden Healey against Cranston West, and Kyle Desrosiers against Hendricken.

Rodericks named the tournament after his 1998 Townie teammate, Justin Rocha. Rocha was an all-state Townie athlete in baseball and football. Rocha, a Warwick firefighter, died unexpectedly in October 2022 at the age of 43. Rocha's family, including his son Cole, were on hand to award the tournament plaques for 1st place and runner-up.

Photos by Andrea Annicelli