Westfield North 12-Year-Old All-Stars’ Mike Nihill rounds the bases after blasting a solo home run in the fifth inning to tie the sectional game at 5-5 Thursday night in Leominster. (Photo by Chris Putz)
LEOMINSTER – The Westfield Little League Baseball North 12-Year-Old All-Stars’ run is done.
Much like their local baseball brethren from the Whip City, Westfield North battled, and battled, and battled until the very end before falling to host Leominster in the Little League Baseball sectional playoffs 6-5 Thursday night.
Leominster pitcher Alex Perez hit a walk-off single with the bases-loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift his team to victory. Perez also survived the Westfield hitting machine to walk away as the winning pitcher.
“I felt we were always trying to fight ourselves out of a hole,” said Westfield North 12-Year-Old All-Stars manager Mike Nihill, whose team was eliminated with two straight losses to begin sectional play. “I give our kids credit though. They played through a lot of clutch, high pressure situations. They gave us a real good run.”
Westfield’s pitching staff beat the heat and the pressure-cooker situations several times against Leominster. Starting pitcher Mike Hall got out of bases-loaded jams in the first and second innings by forcing a pop-fly and strikeout to end both threats, escaping with only one run scored against him (unearned).
Reliever Jimmy Hagan also dodged a bullet in the fourth as Leominster loaded the bases with no outs. Hagan went to 3-0 counts on each of the next two batters but struck out the first hitter and forced a ground out on the next. He struck out another batter to end the inning.
Westfield began the game with a 1-0 lead, following Joe Raco’s lead-off single in the second inning and Nick Barber’s one-run double. Leominster scored a game-tying run in the bottom of the inning on an infield error, but the Whip City’s All-Stars responded.
In the top of the third, Jimmy Hagan was hit by a one-out pitch. Spencer Cloutier, Raco, and Mike Nihill followed with consecutive RBI singles to take a 4-1 edge.
Leominster never wilted under the hot summer sun, loading the bases in the bottom half of the inning. Frank Winetta belted a two-run single and Nathan Smith blasted a two-run double in consecutive at-bats to take a 5-4 advantage.
In the fifth, Nihill blasted a one-out solo home run, his third of the postseason, to tie the game 5-all. Leominster took the game’s final lead in the sixth.
Westfield North had a golden opportunity a half-inning earlier when Rix and Carter Cousins reached on consecutive singles with no outs. But an overaggressive approach on the basepaths wiped out both baserunners. Still, the Whip City managed to put two runners on – Hagan was hit by a pitch and Cloutier singled – but a fly out ended the game.
“Hopefully this team will use this experience going to Babe Ruth next year,” manager Nihill said.
