Rhode Island Team Of The Week - South Kingstown
May 16, 2019
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Rhode Island Team Of The Week - South Kingstown
WAKEFIELD, R.I. - The road to a third consecutive trip to the state finals is progressing well for South Kingstown.
Last year’s state champs are 11-3 and the Rhode Island Prep Baseball Report Team of the Week.
“We’re getting there,” long-time head coach Jim Sauro said of his Rebels, which have won 63 of it last 74 games dating back to the middle of the 2016 season.
State champions in 2012 in addition to last season, the Rebels of South Kingstown have a bullseye on their back according to the team’s frontman.
“We’ve definitely had that,” Sauro noted. “We just have to be fundamentally sound and the pitchers have got to win the one-run battles. They can’t walk people, the defense has to make the routine plays and offensively we have to be able to get the clutch hit with two strikes and two outs.
“If you’re better than the other team and you do that stuff ... you will win.”
Solid hitting has helped carry South Kingstown so far this season.
“We hit one through nine pretty well,” Sauro said.
Blaine Lidsky leads in that regard. A Stonehill signee as a catcher, the 6-1 200-pound 172nd-rated New England senior is ripping the ball at a .600 clip.
Three other seniors going on to play at the next level have also been huge contributors for Sauro’s Rebels.
Cole Podedworny, a 6-1 185-pound first baseman going to Rhode Island College, is averaging .400 with 18 runs scored and 10 stolen bases. Colin Egan, a center fielder committed to Rhode Island University ranked 386th in the 2019 New England class, is batting .340 with 10 RBIs while Broc French, a Trinity signee rated 163rd, has a .350 average while driving in 15 runs.
French, a 6-2 150-pound left-hander, is also 5-0 on the mound with senior Phil Ruhle 4-0.
“He’s been a nice surprise,” Sauro said of Ruhle, a 5-8 175-pounder ranked 329th in New England’s 2019 class and committed to Rhode Island College. “He’s not allowed more than four hits in any game this year with a lot of weak contact.”
Sauro, a coach at South Kingstown since 1979 looking to make an eight trip to the finals, points to three surprises with this year’s team in Hunter Roberts, Sam Craven and Kevin Gutelius..
“Our second baseman and third baseman are hitting better than the year before,” Sauro said in reference to Roberts and Craven, respectively. “We also have a kid (Gutelius) in the seven-hole who is new on the team and hitting the ball well. That’s been a definite surprise.”
Each with pitching ability as well, Roberts is the 230th-ranked junior in New England while Craven is rated 307th.
“Right now it’s about playing better in all phases,” Sauro said in looking ahead for his team which is one game behind LaSalle in the conference with four games left. The two split this season and would not meet again until a potential matchup in the state finals according to Sauro.
“We need to crank it up a notch,” Sauro added. “We’ve got to get good pitching and get more timely hitting and we’ll be alright.”