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The Whip City 13-year-old All-Stars
Mike Hall earned the win for Westfield, throwing five innings and giving up just three hits. His defense helped Hall escape several bases-loaded jams, helping Pittsfield strand 12 batters on base.
continued their undefeated run in tournament play Friday night, winning their second game in as many days against their Babe Ruth rivals at Bullens Field.
Mike Hall drove in two runs and pitched the longest outing for a Westfield pitcher during the State Tournament, benefiting from a sound defensive effort to defeat Western Massachusetts rival Pittsfield, 6-1, to advance to the championship game Sunday at 1 p.m.
“They’re developing into the champions that we want them to be,” said Head Coach Matt Avery. “Their validation will be Sunday if they win it. We told them to stay the course, stay with our goals, work hard, do the things that got us here and put the finishing touches on where we want to be.”
After scraping a 17-11 victory to clinch the No. 1 seed in the district Saturday afternoon, Westfield shut down the potent Pittsfield lineup, holding the designated home team to three hits and stranding 12 boys on base, including three innings with the bases loaded. Hall earned the win by throwing five innings and two strikeouts. He walked six, but the defense supported Hall by securing the final outs when Westfield needed to stop the Pittsfield threats.
“I thought Mike Hall pitched excellently,” said Avery. “He got out of a couple of jams, made the pitches he needed to pitch and went the deepest that a pitcher has gone for us, so I thought he did a great job. He struggled at times, but they’re 13-year-olds, so it’s nice to see their development. He developed some good skills on the mound to bear down and focus.”
For a majority of the night, Pittsfield’s Nick Taylor controlled the Wolfpack bats, keeping them off-balanced with his many changeups and offspeed pitches. Westfield managed to scatter 10 hits across the seven innings, including seven off of Taylor, but a couple of timely hits and agggressive base running propelled Westfield’s scoring.
Jack Masciadrelli and Matt Pelletier each scored a run via a wild pitch in the first and sixth inning respectively, helping Westfield accumulate eight stolen bases and five more bases on wild pitches. Hall recorded two runs batted in to help his own cause on a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a groundout to shortstop in the fifth inning.
Walter Figueroa also drove in a run on a single that barely made it halfway back to the pitcher’s mound, but the play helped extend Westfield’s lead to four after Taylor rushed his throw due to Figueroa’s speed, allowing Colin Scanlon to score the second run of the play.
“Pittsfield did a really good job scouting us heavily,” said Avery. “They knew we can hit the fastball, so they decided to go with offspeed (pitching) and it did keep us off-balanced, but we were able to get on base. With the curveballs that they threw, we knew that they would bounce some so it would give us an opportunity to advance our runners. We got some timely hits, stayed the course and shot it toward the middle of the field. Hats off to Pittsfield for keeping us off-balanced.”
Westfield will have a day of rest Saturday before their championship matchup at 1 p.m. Sunday. Saturday will produce their opponent out of the loser’s bracket, where Pittsfield will face Joe Schwartz from North Worcester for the second time in the tournament.
“(Saturday) gives us a chance to regroup (and) definitely gives us a chance to rest arms,” said Avery. “It gives us a chance to work on a couple more things that we need to work on to be ready to go for Sunday. It’s a good opportunity for us and winning the first two games definitely put us in a good position to take advantage of that.”
