The East Providence High School baseball team begins its pursuit of a second consecutive Division II championship in city Friday night, May 24, when the Townies host Chariho. First pitch is 5 o'clock.

East Providence is the fifth seed in the league playoffs. Chariho is the 12th. Friday is a single-elimination preliminary round game.

"Chariho may be the 12th seed but they are tough and have to good pitchers," EPHS head coach Bobby Rodericks, referring to Charger hurlers Adam Carpenter and Landon Sumner.

He continued, "We know them both well as we seen them over two times each in the last two seasons. We have been hitting very well the last half of the season so I’m hoping to keep the momentum going into Friday’s game."

The EP-Chariho winner advances to the main draw, Pod 1, and a meeting with fourth-seeded Johnston. Eighth-seeded Prout and ninth-seeded Burrillville are also in Pod 1.

Second and third seeds Barrington and East Greenwich, respectively, have byes into the main draw of Pod 2. Narragansett and Tiverton meet in the single-elimination 7-10 game while St. Raphael and North Providence vie in the 6-11 contest.

Pod play is double-elimination. The eventual winners advance to the best-of-three D-II final series at Rhode Island College beginning Saturday, June 1.

The Townies are quite familiar with Chariho and Westerly, having played both twice during their run to the 2023 title. EP beat the Chargers twice in pod play a year ago, including the finale 2-1 to advance to the championship series. The locals beat the Bulldogs 6-1 in a losers' bracket tilt.

This spring, the Townies got the better of Chariho in their lone meeting on April April 5, 9-3. EP lost and ended up tying the Bulldogs. Westerly won at home 2-1, then rallied to level its outing in East Providence at 4-apiece before rain halted the game. The contest was not resumed because it did not affect either team's playoff fortunes.

The Townies wound up with a 13-4-1 record, the third-best overall in the league, but only good enough for the fifth playoff seed.

Westerly is the one with 15-2-1 overall record and as the top side in one of the division's four-team subgroups. Barrington (15-3), East Greenwich (12-6) and Johnston (10-8) placed atop the other three.

"We're confident that our team matches up well with each other if we happen to see each other in the tournament," Rodericks added about the draw overall.

Also as was the case last year, the Townies will initially employ a two-man starting rotation of junior right-handers Tim Robitaille and Dylan Annicelli.

Rodericks said Robitaille is likely to start against Chariho. Annicelli would begin the second game. EP also has a third capable starter and reliever in junior Hendricken transfer Tyler Dicecco.