WESTFIELD – Twenty years ago, Westfield had a Babe Ruth 15-year-old baseball team that captured the hearts and minds of the Whip City.
This team of local All-Stars made it all the way to the World Series championship in Vallejo, California only to fall to Scotsdale (Arizona) in the double-elimination tournament, 7-2, 9-7.
“We were probably the worst hitting team there, but we had the defense, the smarts, and we were very aggressive,” said one of the team’s coaches, Phil Aucella, reflecting back upon that memorable journey two decades ago.
“We did a lot of the little things well, and the kids were tough. Then we woke up one day and reality set in,” said Aucella.
That team, also coached by Frank Mochak, a well-known baseball guy in the city of Westfield, struggled to hit in the World Series, batting close to .190, but found other ways to get the job done.
“We had determination – you couldn’t put that on a piece of paper,” said Aucella, who now serves as the tournament director for the Babe Ruth 13-Year-Old New England Regionals. “It was a our refuse to lose approach. We had good players who knew the game and we didn’t beat ourselves. We had one hell of a ride.”
It’ll be one heckuva ride for this year’s 13-year-old team.
Once Westfield touches down on their flight to Kitsap County, Washington, the players will be shuttled off to various host families where they will stay for the duration of the tournament.
“It’s another thing they will have to overcome,” said Aucella, “as well as trying to coach these kids. It’s a unique experience. …once in a lifetime. You don’t realize it until 20 years later.”
To make this a successful trip – at least in the wins column – Westfield will need its ace Ari Schwartz to continue his mastery on the mound, and the team will need to receive key contributions from the rest of its staff – right-handers Sean Moorhouse, Scott Walsh, Matt Hastings, Austin St. Pierre, Noah Murray, Sean Murphy, and Reed Phillips, and lefty Tommy Smith.
The defense, which has sparkled at times, will need all of its stars to shine, this time on the West Coast. And the offense, which has had very little trouble scoring runs this postseason, will need to remain focused at all times.
“Every team we face is going to be strong,” Westfield 13-Year-Old manager Mike Smith said. “We are going to have to put our best face forward and expect a battle every time.”
Westfield will be tested from the outset, playing four-time defending Midwest Plains regional champion, Waite Park (Minnesota), in the World Series opener Wednesday at 9 a.m., before facing the host team from Kitsap County (Washington) on Friday.
“We might be running into a buzz saw,” Smith said.
Westfield has attempted to maintain a routine schedule throughout the week leading up to the World Series, attempting to hold practices while attending to travel arrangements, fundraising efforts, media requests, hoopla, and local fanfare.
“As a coach, it’s been hard to hold practices without interruptions,” Smith said. “We are not only representing the city of Westfield, but the entire region. There have been so many people interested in our team, people talking about when their grandkids played. It’s been a little different to have our normal routine in practice, but at this point in the season, there’s not a lot we can do but stay fresh.”
Smith said while he has gone with the same starting nine throughout the postseason, unheralded players like Noah Murray, who has provided some clutch hits off the bench, and Liam Whitman, may be the key to a successful tournament run.
“We have 15 kids,” Smith said. “Sixty percent of them are sitting on the bench at any one time … but they’re all worthy. I’m very confident that I can put in any one kid at any point and they’ll perform well.”
Aucella left the current World Series bound team with a few words of encouragement based on his experiences 20 years ago.
“Every level we worked harder,” he said. “That’s what I have to say to these kids. Just because you’ve made it, do you want to go home in two days?”
Now that pool play has replaced the double-elimination format two decades later, the real question is – will Westfield survive five days of intense competition? Only time will tell.
