The 2022 Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) State Division 3 Baseball Championships concluded on Saturday with North Smithfield High School winning Game 3 of a very competitive series against Classical High School. Game 1 and Game 2 produced a ton of excitement, late inning rallies for both teams, walk off wins for both teams, and proved without a doubt that both North Smithfield and Classical were there to win. Congrats to the entire Classical High School baseball family on an amazing run in the playoffs and a very successful season. And Congratulations to the 2022 RIIL Division 3 State Baseball Champions – The North Smithfield High School Northmen.

Throughout the year, I have followed the Northmen through my GameChanger app as well as through their very impressive Instagram page. I have messaged and communicated with them throughout the playoffs and the page has been very informative, very responsive, and very appreciative of my page sharing valuable Northmen Baseball news. I have some championship photos that I want to share with you from the Northmen page in a bit. First though, I took a ride up to North Smithfield High School yesterday to take a tour of the baseball field and snag some photos of the field. Here is what I observed.

It was a beautiful afternoon for a drive up to North Smithfield. When I was researching the school’s address on Google Maps, I spotted a familiar landmark – Bryant University – so I knew exactly the right route to get there. From my house in North Kingstown, I went up Route 95N to 295N, then took the Bryant University/Route 7 exit. Just passed the entrance to Bryant (on my left) and Fidelity Investments (on my right), was a fork in the road to take me right onto Route 5 or Providence Pike. The High School was just down the road from the Elementary School and I found parking in the lot next to the stairs leading up to the Athletic Fields. A few kids were playing soccer, others were walking on the track when I arrived. Tons of big puffy clouds in the sky but no rain as of yet when I pulled up around 3pm.

First thing I spotted were the green and yellow dugouts and recalled the Davies vs North Smithfield game I attended recently where the players on North Smithfield matched the colors of the dugouts. I walked around the back of the field and noticed a batting cage on the first base side and a pitching mound on the 3rd base or home dugout side. On the home dugout was a sign that read “Congratulations – 2008 N.S. Varsity Baseball Team, Division II Baseball Champions.” Looks like a new sign will be added to this one!!! Inside the home dugout, I saw the operations of baseball with some signage on the corkboard and a scorebook. Check out the Northmen Baseball Quality At Bats Checklist! Very cool…

As I walked around the field, I noticed a bunch of disc golf receptacles around the park and throughout the athletic field complex. My favorite number, 8, was the disc golf receptacle in left field.

And I took this video from the left field area just passed the third base bag:

As I was walking back to the home plate area, I spotted some signage on the first base dugout. It was recognizing the team that made “these dugouts possible” and mentioned a “Construction Class.” There were names and names of businesses listed and a shot this picture to further recognize their efforts.

It was a great visit to the Northmen Baseball field to check out the home field of the 2022 RI Division 3 State Champs. This morning, I messaged the IG account of the Northmen Baseball team and mentioned the scorebook and the visit to the field. And I was so psyched to get a number of Championship photos sent back to me. Here they are with captions from the Northmen IG Page:

A thrilling end to a very successful season and a State Championship – Congratulations once again to the 2022 RIIL Division 3 State Baseball Champions, the North Smithfield Northmen Baseball Team. A season to remember for a lifetime!!!

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