EG could have won back-to-back D-II softball titles. Instead, it wanted something bigger.

EAST GREENWICH — After the first inning, East Greenwich found out just how much different things are in Division I softball.

And one swing was all it took for the Avengers to understand they’ll be able to compete just fine this season.

Last spring, East Greenwich opened the season with a loss but hasn’t been on the wrong side of the scoreboard since. The Avengers rolled to the Division II title and, with the core of its roster back, could have remained there and probably won another title.

But that’s not what EG wanted. It wanted to take on the best of the best and see how far it could go. In a non-realignment season, the Avengers asked to move up to Division I, taking on the challenge for a title rather than stay down and chase a D-II championship the easy way.

“We wanted to see the limits we could reach with this program, with this specific team,” EG’s Ava Fairbanks said. “I think we can achieve a lot of goals we have.”

“We’re not setting expectations beyond what is approachable right now,” EG coach Rob Petrucci said. “What is approachable right now is we’re in every game, we compete every game, we see where we are at the end of the game and our first goal is to get into the playoffs.

“We want to get to the playoffs, take a look where we are, readjust our goals and go from there.”

EG would have entered D-II as the runaway favorite, but Monday’s 7-3 win over Cumberland — an annual title contender — showed why the Avengers had to readjust their thinking and why they can compete at D-I.

It didn’t take long for East Greenwich see the difference between making minor mistakes in D-II vs. D-I, like when Fairbanks didn’t quite hit her spot with a pitch and Cumberland All-Stater Lacie Grenier nuked the ball to right center to put the Clippers up, 2-0, in the first inning.

“I was like ‘welp, there we go,’ ” Fairbanks said. “I was definitely thrown off guard a little bit but I was expecting it to happen. I heard a lot about the hitting on this team, so I knew it was going to happen eventually, so you just have to come back from it.”

East Greenwich was quick to capitalize on opponents' miscues last spring, but on Monday, Cumberland didn’t make many. The Clippers made plays the Avengers didn’t see a lot of teams make last year, including two catches by Grenier in right field that kept EG from taking a lead late in the game.

“That defense is unbelievable,” Petrucci said. “They stymied us at every turn. There were at least three balls in the outfield that probably drop on a lot of teams. They made all the plays.”

So how did EG pull off the win?

Talent certainly helps.

Margaret Neville was an All-State hitter last season and showed why, hitting a solo home run that got EG on the board in the second inning.

Fairbanks was an All-State pitcher last spring and after the tough start, made the necessary adjustments to return to her dominating self. The senior finished the game with 16 strikeouts and gave up four hits, throwing five shutout innings after giving up three runs in the first three.

Cat Neville ended up being the hero. Stepping up to bat with the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth inning, the senior had already had a good day after her line drive cleared the fence for the game-tying two-run homer in the fourth.

Things got better — and Neville didn’t wait. In the eighth, she turned on the first pitch she saw and the sound let everyone know it wasn’t landing anytime soon. The grand slam won the game as Cat Neville was mobbed by her teammates as she crossed home plate.

“All I wanted to do was hit whatever was the closest ball. I could tell she was throwing first-pitch strikes, so I was ready to get after it pretty early,” Cat Neville said. ‘I happened to hit it in the right spot and it just went.”

“Playing a game like this, in a fashion like this, it makes us ride momentum and build up the adrenaline,” Fairbanks said. “It’s a good feeling.”

This is what East Greenwich was after. This was its first test, the first of many, and the Avengers passed with flying colors.

“I did expect we would compete and be able to do well in a game against a D-I team,” Cat Neville said. “But I would never expect to end a game in that way.

“I believe we can compete in this division and Cumberland is a great team, so it was a really great matchup.”

Had East Greenwich remained in Division II, it likely would have faced a couple of tough games. It probably would have pulled most, if not all, of them out.

But if the Avengers rolled to another title, the question about how they would have fared in D-I would have hung in the air.

EG has eliminated any questions — and now its ready to compete.

“Winning in D-II would have been a challenge, 100 percent,” Fairbanks said. “This is a whole new level and being with this team, being in this division, it’s something we’re going to have to work for but I think we can definitely achieve it.”

“It is easy to go game-by-game, but in the big picture why wouldn’t you want to go for the state title?” Cat Neville said. “We have the opportunity to if we keep playing how we did and we keep getting better. I don’t see a reason why we can’t.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: East Greenwich softball stepping up to play Division I softball in 2024