Westfield’s 13-year old Babe Ruth after defeating Pittsfield 10-9 in the Regional Championship Sunday at Bullens Field (Photo by Peter Francis)
WESTFIELD – In a rematch of their second round matchup earlier last week, Westfield’s Babe Ruth 13-year old’s defeated Pittsfield 10-9 in a see-saw affair to claim the sectional championship.
After blasting Worcester earlier in the week and defeating Pittsfield 3-1 in the next round, Westfield waited patiently as Pittsfield roughed up Holden to advance to the championship at Bullens Field yesterday.
While Pittsfield drew first blood in the opening inning, Westfield charged back in the second to tie it up on a Jim Hagan single that scored Spencer Cloutier. Westfield tacked on two more with a Joe Raco single and a passed ball which sent Ethan Dolan home.
Pittsfield was able to do what no other team in the state had been able to do in the second, as they drew several walks and smacked three runs on Westfield ace Cloutier to take the lead again.
Hagan registered a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second to send Mike Nihill home, and Cloutier smacked an RBI single up the gut to give the home team the lead once again.
The scoreboard tug o’ war continued until the bottom of the sixth, when Hagan launched a double to start the final comeback effort, and scored on a Cam Parent single to tie it at 9-9.
Bailey Collier delivered the knockout blow on a two-out RBI double to give Westfield the lead for good.
The top of the seventh saw Westfield return to form, and Hagan shut the door on Pittsfield’s season in efficient fashion, inducing two groundouts and one strikeout in relief of Cloutier on the mound.
After the game, Westfield coach Mike Nihill addressed the media under the Bullens scoreboard, with the victorious final tally still displayed.
“This is huge momentum for us now,” he said proudly. “Now that we know we’ve got these guys, it doesn’t matter what we’ve got in front of us.”
Nihill also addressed the squad’s pitching, which looked uncharacteristically shaky at times yesterday.
“Our pitching can now get re-situated. It was getting scary there. If we had to go one more, it would’ve put some strain on us,” he said. “But we’re ready (for regionals). Our depth is there.”
“Cloutier, once we saw him get his composure on the mound, the bats came back to life. We kept scoring every inning. I can’t really single anybody out,” he said. “When Collier hit that thing late, that was the boom of the day. He’s been struggling of late, but he had that etched in the back of his mind and he went to work.”
“I didn’t think I was going to make anything happen, but it just happened,” said Collier of his late-inning, go-ahead RBI.
“I wanted to get us through this game, because then we wouldn’t have another game where we’d have to use more pitching,” said Hagan of his relief effort. “It was good to get those last three out.”
The next stop for Westfield’s Babe Ruth 13-year olds is Newtown, Connecticut on for New England’s Regional Tournament on July 25, a place Nihill is more than excited to be heading.
“We’ll be facing the best in New England,” he said. “And we fit right in there.”
