The Town of North Kingstown has two middle schools – Wickford Middle School and Davisville Middle School. The schools are separated by about 5 miles and represent the majority of 6th to 8th grade age students in North Kingstown, with a small percentage attending private schools. Yesterday, the baseball teams from Wickford and Davisville met at Lischio Field under beautiful weather conditions. Most of the players, collectively, have played together on travel teams and/or North Kingstown Wickford Little League teams for years. The coaches for each side are friends and have coached with and against each other on travel teams and in recreation leagues. This made the game even more interesting than others these schools will play this season in interscholastic play. The players know each other by first name, how hard they throw, where they tend to hit the ball, their speed, their defensive abilities. Talk about advanced scouting. The coaches and players from yesterday’s Wickford vs Davisville game have about 8 years of advanced scouting.

And in the stands, you couldn’t really tell who was rooting for who. Player’s parents joked and laughed and cheered for just about every player who batted, pitched, stole a base, scored a run, or made an out in the field. It was one of the friendliest crowds you can imagine. As the players have all grown up playing together on the field, all of the parents and grandparents have watched them from the stands and bleachers of parks here in North Kingstown and beyond. Some have traveled out of state together for tournaments. So, the parents know each other very, very well and for the most part support each other’s kids on the field. That was really cool to witness. A true North Kingstown Baseball community afternoon.

IN THE COMMUNITY