The Barrington High School baseball team defeated East Greenwich 5-4 in a Division II playoff game on Wednesday night, June 7, and forced a winner-take-all showdown for Friday afternoon. 

The Eagles and Avengers take the field at Barrington High School at 4:15 on Friday — the winning team advances to the Division II state championship series, which will be held June 15-18 at Rhode Island College. 

Barrington faced a must-win on Wednesday night, having dropped an earlier game to East Greenwich. 

The Eagles responded to the challenge by building a 4-1 lead going into the seventh inning. Eli Terrell and Grant Culton each had two hits and drove in runs. 

Meanwhile, Harrison Cooley pitched well for the Eagles, allowing only one run on one hit while striking out seven.

In the top of the seventh, Barrington’s Quinn Murphy smashed his third hit of the game. The junior roped a double over the right-fielder’s head. East Greenwich threw out Murphy as he tried to stretch it to a triple, but the hit scored Gabe Tanous and gave the Eagles a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the last inning.

That one run in the top of the seventh turned out to be the game-winner. 

East Greenwich opened the bottom of the seventh by loading the bases with two walks and an error by Barrington. The Avengers scored a run on a ground-ball out; Cooley, then playing shortstop, made a nice play to throw out a runner at second. 

East Greenwich cut the lead to 5-4 with a bloop single.

The Avengers had runners on second and third with two outs, but Barrington’s Evan Anderson caught a line drive to left-field and ended the game.

Barrington Coach Vin Scandura said he is looking forward to Friday’s game.

“The question is whether we can score runs early,” Scandura said.

The Eagles coach also hopes to see fewer walks by his pitching staff. Ten East Greenwich batters drew walks in Wednesday’s game.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been part of a game where we walked 10 batters and won,” Scandura said. 

Barrington sophomore left-hander Owen Pfeffer will start on the mound in Friday’s game, Scandura said.