jacob rousseau, providence journal
·4 min read
WEST WARWICK — Conor Donahue had the odds against him.
But the sophom*ore doesn’t care about short rest or the pressure of a championship contest. All bets are off when Rogers’ ace is on the mound and the righty produced a second straight title-winning outing. Donahue retired 10 of the last 11 West Warwick batters in order. His seventh-inning dissection of the Wizards was magnificent.
Donahue carved out three straight strikeouts and the third-seeded Vikings left McCarthy Field as Division III champions on his one-hit masterpiece in a 5-2 finish of Game 3 on Monday night.
“Every single inning somehow his fastball got more movement and somehow got faster,” Donahue’s battery mate, Nixon Brownell said. “Which I don't understand how it's possible, no idea. Usually, his fastball cuts a little bit, it wasn’t cutting like anything I've ever seen in my entire life.”
Donahue handed No. 1 West Warwick its second loss in five days to capture the title with his seven strikeouts and two walks over the complete game showing. The Wizards entered the title series undefeated and the heavy favorite in the league after averaging some eight runs a game. But in his first championship display, he threw 107 pitches and allowed just three hits with 10 strikeouts in the 3-1 opening win.
“My true mindset is just I'm the best one on the field,” Donahue said. “And I just have to pitch every ball with all the confidence I have and visualize every strike I throw no matter what.”
Rogers returned for Game 2 on Saturday at Cardines Field and was promptly no-hit for an 11-1 finish that tied the series. Rain moved the winner-take-all championship, originally slated for Sunday, back 24 hours and gave Donahue another day to prepare.
“He's just a special pitcher,” Rogers’ coach Anthony Borgueta said. “He's sometimes a little hard on himself because I don't think he realizes how good he actually is. Sometimes all he has to do is throw strikes and nobody is going to hit him and if they are, they're going to either drive it into the ground or pop it up.”
And on Monday, Donahue had the fastball, curve and sinker all working against the Wizards.
“I was sitting back there thinking I would be very upset if I had to face him,” Nixon said. “It was just unbelievable. And they're standing in the box, watching balls go down the middle.
“I knew he was pitching and I had the most amount of confidence in the entire world.”
The Game 3 win gave Rogers its second D-III title since 2019, but the Vikings didn’t hit their stride until the second week in May. They then ripped off 10 straight wins as Donahue also pitched in the Pod 2 winners’ bracket final for a 5-2 decision against Pawtucket.
“Coming off the loss it just felt like the end of the world,” Donahue said of Game 2. “But at the same time, we pushed through it. We had to practice to get really used to staying back on the ball and hitting the curveball the other way and that's really what helped us this game and putting runs on the board.”
After sitting down the first 10 batters he faced, Donahue hit trouble in the fourth surrendering a single to right and then walking the next batter in four pitches. West Warwick plated the game’s first run on an error and then pushed another across on a sacrifice fly to center for a 2-0 game. But outside of a free base in the sixth, the Wizards couldn’t reach safely against the star as the Vikings returned with a five-run top of the fifth.
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“I was just really pumped up and had a lot of confidence,” Donahue said of the final inning. “I was just thinking that I just need three more outs and we could get through it. I knew we could get through it and I was just using all of my pitches to get advantage.”
“We're like family,” Donahue said. “Everyone loves each other. Everyone always gets each other up after something happens, nobody ever gets down on each other.”
jrousseau@providencejournal.com
On X:@ByJacobRousseau
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Donahue tosses one-hitter to capture Rogers baseball Div. III title
