Can Portsmouth win a D-II title? Tuesday's win will help answer that.
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WEST WARWICK – The offense is still there. The ace has accepted her role. The defense is vastly improved. The lessons from last year were learned.
And if there’s a time for the Portsmouth softball team to show its ready to win a title, this would be the week to do it.
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The Patriots have gotten off to a terrific start this season and on Tuesday, April 28, they put all their skills on display for the world to see. Barbara Rainey opened scoring with a home run, Mia Ruggieri dealt for seven innings and dropped a bomb of her own as Portsmouth took down Kent County, 6-1, and took a step in showing it’s ready to win big.
“This is the first really competitive team that we’ve played and to come out on top feels great,” Rainey said. “I feel like it’s a statement.”
“We know we have a tough week, tough two weeks ahead of us,” Ruggieri said. “It’s good to see a tough team to start it off and get us ready.
“We just wanted to come in here and play as clean as we could and get a win.”
The victory certainly was tidy, a sign of growth for this group that only graduated one player from last year’s team that made it to Rhode Island College before falling in the losers’ bracket final.
Scoring and pitching weren’t a problem for the Patriots. The defense was and too many times, Portsmouth couldn’t make the most basic of plays. Errors piled on and put the team in a hole the bats couldn’t climb out of.
It looked like the woes would continue after three errors cost the Patriots in their season opener. They survived two in a win over Scituate in the second game of the season.
But since then the defense has been key. Portsmouth is making plays and not giving away outs.
“Defense has been the primary focus this year at practice,” Rainey said. “… We’ve just been grinding it out at practice and make sure those errors stay at the practice field.”
The Patriots clearly do some hitting at practice and bring the bats wherever they go.
Rainey was a beast in the middle of the order for Portsmouth last year and she’s on the short list of the top hitters in Division II this spring. Rainey wasted little time in putting on a show against Kent County, swinging at the first pitch she saw and carrying well over the fence in left field to put the Patriots up 2-0 after the first inning.
In the second inning, Portsmouth got it done with two outs. A seemingly harmless two-out single by Emily Bronson was followed by a single to no man’s land by Rainey and Ruggieri’s double to left scored them both to make it 4-0. Evelyn Schmidt followed with a single and the 5-0 lead was just another example of how good this Portsmouth offense has been this season.
“We just learned how to play as a team,” Rainey said. “It shows you it is a team sport and you can’t win alone. We learned how to work together.”
“We work hard with hitting, we work hard with fielding,” Ruggieri said. “Offense is our strength and when we do struggle it’s tough, but we have a tougher defense and I think we can pull it out.”
Having Ruggieri in the circle also helps.
Last year she split duties with since-graduated Mary Rainey, stepping into the role as the teams No. 1. The role comes with an extra workload – Ruggieri said splitting duties was helpful during the postseason on back-to-back games – and pressure, but Ruggieri is locked in knowing she’s getting the ball in every big game.
“I do put a lot of pressure on myself but do know I’ve worked hard this year, last year and the last couple of years,” Ruggieri said. “I trust myself and I trust my defense.”
Tuesday, it wasn’t hard to see why.
Ruggieri didn’t let a Kent County runner reach scoring position until the fourth, when Sophie Moreira and Abigail O’Connorhit back-to-back one-out singles. Ruggieri picked up the second out with a K, then got a groundout to end the threat.
In the sixth, an error and a hit-by-pitch had Kent County threatening again. Three straight ground ball outs ended that and Ruggieri followed with a home run of her own in the seventh to pad the lead.
While Kent County got on the board in the seventh, Ruggieri made sure one run was all it got. She finished the game giving up six hits, one walk and striking out five.
“She’s really stepped up,” said Rainey, Portsmouth’s catcher. “… This year’s she’s stepped to the plate and done what she has to do for the team."
And while Rainey may have underestimated some of the opponents Portsmouth has beaten this spring – Ponaganset, Barrington and East Greenwich are certainly darkhorse contenders in D-II – there’s no doubt about the talent of the teams its facing next.
Thursday (weather permitting) Portsmouth is set to travel to play Lincoln, which is undefeated and second in the Division II RPI. Saturday the Patriots will return home for a date with Johnston, which has one loss to a Division I team on its record and sits in first in the D-II RPI standings.
“I’m super excited,” Rainey said. “These are the fun games and that’s where we can see where we are as a team.”
The Patriots know where they want to see themselves at the end of the season and getting to RIC is a part of it.
“The past two years we’ve gotten to RIC in the losers’ bracket and came in third,” Ruggieri said. “We’d like to get past that.”
“We’re looking for a [Division II] championship,” Rainey said. “We want to go all the way. We’ve made it pretty close almost every year, so this year is hopefully our year.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Score from Portsmouth at Kent County Softball on Tuesday April 28 2026