Members of the Westfield 13-Year-Old Babe Ruth team celebrate their victory over Connecticut State Champion New Milford with a 7-3 win at Bullens Field last night. (Photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The Westfield Babe Ruth 13-Year-Old All Stars are one win away from making history.
Westfield defeated New Milford (Conn.) 7-3 in the winner’s bracket semifinal last night at Bullens Field, advancing to the eastern regionals championship. The last time the Whip City sent a team to the Babe Ruth World Series was 1992.
The regional championship will be held Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. If Westfield (3-0) loses, a second and final game will begin 20 minutes later to determine the champion.
“I’m so happy, this team works so hard,” Westfield manager Mike Smith said. “This team has a lot of grit.”
Westfield leaned on its ace, pitcher Ari Schwartz (6 inn., 7 hits allowed, 2 Ks), and took advantage of New Milford’s numerous miscues.
The two teams mirrored each other though through the first two innings.
In the first, New Milford pitcher Tim Gesauldi and Schwartz retired the side 1-2-3. The next inning was one of wasted opportunities as both teams put multiple runners on base, but came up empty.
Anthony Clark and Scott Walsh drew walks to open up the top of the second inning for Westfield. A fielder’s choice moved Clark to third. A pickoff at second base and a groundout ended the threat.
For New Milford, the wasted opportunity stung a bit more.
Tyler Hansen doubled, Riley Zimmerman singled and stole second base, and Gesauldi walked to load the bases with no outs. Schwartz responded by inducing an infield and outfield fly out, and a groundout, to end the inning.
“When the going gets tough, he seems to come through with a play or a pitch,” coach Smith said of Schwartz.
New Milford got a bit wild with the ball, committing three errors in the third inning, resulting in Westfield’s first run. Matt Hastings scored after reaching on an error, advancing on Shaun Gezotis’s sac-bunt, and scoring on a misplayed pickoff attempt at first base.
Another error, the team’s fourth, to begin the fourth inning led to another Westfield run.
Anthony Clark was the Whip City’s beneficiary this time as he made it all the way to second when his hard-hit ball scooted off the first baseman and out of play. Zach Jarvis eventually drove him in with a line drive single through the right side. Westfield led 2-0.
New Milford finally broke their goose egg on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the inning. Connecticut loaded the bases with singles from Zimmerman and Chris Ryan with a Gesauldi walk sandwiched in between. A fielder’s choice on Paul Dohler’s groundout cut the lead in half, 2-1. Schwartz struck out the next batter and forced a pop fly to quell a rally.
Westfield’s aggressiveness on the basepaths and at the plate, which at times got them in trouble against New Milford, turned into good fortune in the fifth.
Austin St. Pierre led off the fifth with a booming triple to left center field. With one out, Sean Moorhouse attempted a bunt on a suicide squeeze but hit a low, weak pop up to New Milford reliever Riley Zimmerman. The pitcher caught the ball out in front of the mound with St. Pierre halfway to home plate, and fired to the third baseman. St. Pierre retreated as the ball sailed wide of third base, stepped on the bag, and raced home to beat the outfield throw. An Anthony Clark triple and another error gave Westfield a 4-1 lead.
New Milford recouped one run in the bottom half of the inning with an Owen Swanson walk, a Brendon Profita single and stolen base, and Zimmerman’s RBI groundout.
New Milford handed Westfield a gift for its patience in the sixth, issuing walks to Jarvis, Gezotis, and Schwartz, hitting Moorhouse for one run, walking in another on a bases-loaded walk to Anthony Clark, and tossing a run-scoring wild pitch. Westfield led 7-2.
Just when it seemed like the game might be lacking a bit of drama, New Milford loaded the bases in the final inning against reliever Moorhouse and drove in a run. But Moorhouse struck out the opponent’s No. 1 batter to preserve the victory.
Said Schwartz: “We didn’t crush the ball or shut them out. We made plays in the field. That’s the difference in the tournament so far.”
In other games, Pittsfield eliminated Marblehead 7-6, and Manchester (NH) knocked off Warwick (RI) 9-7. Pittsfield and Manchester will meet in a must-win showdown Tuesday at 6 p.m. The winner will square off in a loser’s bracket final Wednesday at 6 p.m. to decide who earns the right to play Westfield in Thursday’s championship.
