By CHRIS MALEY
For www.cliftonparkworldseries.com
CLIFTON PARK — Cranston, Rhode Island defeated Grand Forks, North Dakota 17-14 Friday to take the opening game of the Babe Ruth World Series.
Cranston was able to withstand Grand Forks’ furious late comeback with the Midwest Regional Champions down to their final three outs in the fourth inning and in danger of losing by implementation of the 10-run “mercy rule.”
With Grand Forks down 15-3 in the third inning, the team scored 11 of the game’s final 13 runs and was threatening with two runners in scoring position before recording the final out of the contest.

The New England Regional Champions were powered by third-baseman Gersham Rainone, who had three hits and scored three runs while driving in two.
Catcher Peter Coccoli also had three hits and three runs scored while chipping in an RBI.
Grand Forks pitcher Brock Montgomery led the team with three runs batted in and went 2-for-3 at the plate. First-baseman Casey Schumacher went 2-for-3 with three runs scored.
Cranston’s bats were scorching hot right out of the gate, scoring 10 runs in the first inning while sending 14 batters to the plate in the process.
“We’re a good hitting team and we just put the bat on the ball,” Rainone said. “When you score that much in the first inning you get the idea in your head that you can win.”
After its 10-run first inning ourburst, Cranston scored five runs in the third and fourth innings and tacked on more in the later innings.
“When we first put team together, I thought we’d be based on pitching and defense,” Rhode Island manager Bob Santos said. “But after the second game of states, we started crushing the ball and we haven’t stopped.”
Cranston was helped in part by two Grand Forks errors. The squad displayed inconsistency in the field throughout the game, committing five errors.
“Our fielding was poor,” Grand Forks coach Tom Montgomery said. “We work on infield pop-ups every day in practice and we dropped a couple of pop-ups we usually catch.
“We dug ourselves a hole early, and you can’t do that with a team like Rhode Island,” Montgomery said.
Despite the early deficit, Grand Forks clawed back with three runs in the bottom half of the first
The real damage was done by the Midwest Plains champion over the final five innings. North Dakota retaliated to score 11 runs and had the tying runner at the plate before the final out.
“The first couple innings were tough, devastating even,” pitcher Brock Montgomery said. “But we’ve came back and battled all year.”
“Our motto’s been bend don’t break,” Tom Montgomery said. “I give our kids credit, we just battled.”
With the 10-run deficit, the skipper had to make some quick decisions with his pitching staff.
“We had to go with a kid who hadn’t pitched in five weeks, and he went out and competed hard.,” Tom Montgomery said. “We were just trying to hang in there all game and I thought we competed real hard at the plate.”
Santos was disappointed in the fact that Grand Forks put up a 14 spot on his team, but still maintains optimism.
“I was telling the kids that everyone’s going to make mistakes,” he said. “But (we) need to realize that it’s not about {one person}, but the team rather. And if we stay focused on ‘the team,’ we’re going to be a tough out in this tournament.”
Cranston gets a day off before facing the World Series host, Clifton Park 7:30 p.m. Sunday night under the lights.

Here is our coverage via CoverItLive from above the World Series field in Clifton Park.
View live web-cast of the Cranston, RI vs. Grand Forks, ND game. Click Here