La Salle baseball opens with dominant performance. Here's what happened
· Yahoo Sports
PROVIDENCE – Tuesday afternoon was an impressive first step for La Salle.
The Rams can’t just snap their fingers and arrive back where they left off last spring. They’ll need to follow the same winding road that put them on the brink of the Division I baseball championship series in 2025.
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Strong starting pitching from Jairo Martinez and offensive contributions from a handful of hitters was a winning recipe against North Kingstown. La Salle eased to an 8-0 shutout against the Skippers at Toti Baseball Diamond on March 31 on campus, celebrating as darkness fell on what was a perfect early spring day.
Martinez fired five scoreless innings, David Cavalloro drove in a pair and Adryan Urena smashed a two-run homer. The Rams broke open a 3-0 lead with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, cruising past what they expect to be a fellow contender when June approaches.
“I’m very excited to get back out here,” Martinez said. “I’ve been anxious to get out here – just want to be with the guys. It’s so fun playing baseball.”
Cavalloro’s single to left in the first and double to left in the fourth helped La Salle open a quick lead and pull away. Urena capped a seven-man rally with a drive toward the parking lot in deep left-center field, flipping his bat soon after he exited the right-handed box. Martinez and Eli Merejildo combined on a five-hitter, striking out 10.
“The whole team’s just been staying calm,” Cavalloro said. “We have our own jobs to do. I’ve just got to stay calm, see the ball and let it get to me.”
Martinez held a 1-0 lead in the second when he made an adjustment that helped change the game. The right-hander started featuring his fastball considerably more often than his secondary pitches, and that helped the senior escape a jam against the bottom of the North Kingstown lineup. A strikeout and a caught stealing ended a one-out threat, and Martinez allowed just four men to reach safely over his next three innings.
“I’ve got an amazing defense behind me – amazing guys behind me,” Martinez said. “I can just throw fastballs on the plate and think to myself, ‘These guys have my back.’”
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La Salle (1-0) added on from there, using a Josh Santana single through the right side and Brady Collins sacrifice fly along the line in right to grow the lead in the second. Santana scored on an error and Cavalloro ripped one to the corner in left to chase Skippers starter Bodie Forsell, a UMass Lowell commit who will have better days this spring. Urena greeted Wyatt Scotti with a blast that made it 7-0.
“I have so much confidence in all my guys,” Cavalloro said. “One through nine, even the guys coming off the bench – I know that they have my back.”
North Kingstown (0-1) was without Oklahoma State commit Rock Arnold, who sat out due to a minor undisclosed injury. Reigning champion Bishop Hendricken started its run from the loser’s bracket in last year’s playoffs with a win over the Skippers and eventually downed the Rams twice to reach the title series with Cumberland. La Salle beat the Hawks to push them to the brink but ultimately couldn’t put them away in an extra-inning thriller that capped Pod 1.
“Coming off the loss last year it was like, ‘We’ve got to get back out there,’” Cavalloro said. “Not even tryouts – pitchers and catchers. We were like, ‘We’re back. We’ve got to get on the field.’”
North Kingstown 000 000 0 – 0 5 1
La Salle 120 401 x – 8 9 1
Bodie Forsell, Wyatt Scotti (4), Chris Ciarniello (6), John O’Rourke (6) and Henry Randall. Jairo Martinez, Eli Merejildo (6) and Brady Collins. HR – Adryan Urena (LS).
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Score of La Salle vs. North Kingstown baseball March 31, 2026