The 1939 Warren High School baseball team was the first Class C team to win a state championship in any sport.

Coached by Hall of Fame member Charlie Burdge, the team won the Class C Championship, before downing Class A Mount Pleasant and Class B Woonsocket to capture the State Championship.           

The team included:

      Pitcher/First Base: Benedetto “Big Ben” Ferrazzano and  Edward “Beany” Ryan

      Catcher: James “Slim” Correia

      Second Base: Rene “Coco” DeBlois

      Shortstop: Captain Hubert “Ditty” Drainville

      Third Base: William “Winky” Correia

      Left Field: Russ “Flash” Greenwood

      Center Field: Nicholas “Nick” Cariglia

      Right Field: Omer Sevigny

Regular Season Substitutes: John “Johnny” Abbruzzi, Ed Godek, and  Leger Morrison,

Winky Correia, Ferrazzano, and Ryan were named All State and are members of the Hall of Fame, as are Abbruzzi (All State 1942), Cariglia, and Drainville.

Defying baseball tradition, the team was a “great hit, not always good field” group, batting .313 in nineteen games, while making an amazing sixty-six errors, ten of them in the series-clinching semi-final game against Mount Pleasant.

The nine’s leading hitters were Beany Ryan .418 (seven doubles), cleanup hitter Flash Greenwood .375 (four triples), Winky Correia .368 (with eighteen stolen bases), and Nick Cariglia .338 (four triples).  Ditty Drainville and Ben Ferrazzano each homered twice.  Beany Ryan had a pitching record of 9-1 while striking out fifty-eight hitters; Ferrazzano struck out forty-seven on his way to a 7-1 record.           

Playoff scores were:

      Beat Class C Western Cumberland, 9-4 and 7-2.

      Beat Class A Mount Pleasant, 5-15, 6-4, and 9-8 in ten innings.

      Beat Class B Woonsocket 4-3 in ten innings and 6-3.

 Picture from Hall of Fame archives