Their efforts didn’t produce a championship, didn’t even clinch a top seed for the playoffs, but it’s safe to say the members of the Portsmouth High baseball team did more this week to enhance the reputation of Patriots baseball than any other team in school history.

The Patriots, in their first season of Division I competition, had started the week as one of only two undefeated teams in the 28-team Division I circuit.

But on Monday there were still questions about just how good the Patriots were.

After all, five of their six victories in intra-Division I-East play had come against teams that also had played in Division II last year.

And even when the Patriots posted a couple of victories in interdivision play against Division I-West opponents last week, the triumphs were over teams that were in the lower half of the I-West standings.

So the Patriots started this week with question marks surrounding their undefeated record.

There’s no question any longer, Portsmouth is for real.

On Tuesday the Patriots became the only undefeated team in the state when they dropped defending state champion Cranston West from the undefeated ranks with a 4-1 victory over the Falcons in Cranston.

Yesterday the Patriots solidified their claim as the top team in the state with a 5-4 victory over Hendricken.

In three days Portsmouth beat the defending state champion and the team that had won 7 of the past 10 Division I state championships.

“There nothing flashy about them, but they play well together and they pick each other up,” said Portsmouth coach Dave Ulmschneider about the Patriots after yesterday’s triumph.

Yesterday’s Portsmouth hero of the day was junior Ryan Westmoreland.

Westmoreland provided both major offensive and defensive contributions as he pitched a complete game, drove home the tying run and scored the winning run as the Patriots overcame a 4-3 deficit with two runs in the fifth inning.

Westmoreland had thrown 112 pitches before the start of the seventh inning, but he finished out the game by striking out three batters in the final inning, including the final out with runners on second and third.

Interdivision play is a hit

There is one more day of interdivision play between the four Division I subdivisions next week before teams return to intradivision play for the final three weeks of the regular season.

In addition to creating some great matchups the interdivision play has proven Interscholastic League officials did a good job creating parity with their subdivision alignments.

Going into yesterday’s action I-East and I-West teams had evenly split their 24 meeting, 12-12. In the games between I-North and I-South teams, the North Division held a slim 13-11 lead.

“I love them,” Ulmschneider offered about the interdivision games.

No Division II showdowns

There is no interdivision play in Division II this season so there will not be any exciting regular-season showdowns for the division’s number-one ranking like there have been in Division I this week.

That’s unfortunate because it would be interesting to see a Mount St. Charles-Prout matchup or Burrillville playing Central, Classical or Mount Pleasant.

Right now both Prout and Mount St. Charles have the right to claim they are the top team in the II circuit. Prout went into yesterday’s action leading the II-South subdivision with a 9-1 record. Mount St. Charles is sitting on top of II-North with an 8-1. Plus several other teams are in close pursuit of the Crusaders and Mounties.

Burrillville is only one game behind Mount St. Charles in II-North with a 7-2 mark and at the start of yesterday’s action Central was a game off the pace in II-South with an 8-2 record.

jgillool@projo.com