WESTFIELD – A pair of top teams in the 11-year-old Little League District 2 division took their talents to Paper Mill Field on Thursday night.
Westfield American was able to take down their city rival, Westfield National, 6-3 in order to improve to 4-0. American will now rest for the remainder of the week and will be the top seed next week. National moves to 2-1 on the season and will face Agawam on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Paper Mill to finish off their pool play schedule. National is guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals next week.
Patrick Flaherty singled and drew a walk for American. (Photo by Kellie Adam)
National was able to get the early 1-0 lead over American in the top of the first inning. After American pitcher Jay Scherpa struck out the first two batters of the game, Anthony Schabowski singled to center in order to start the two-out rally.
Ryder Pieczarka then tripled deep in right field to drive in Schabowski.
As American went up to hit in the bottom half of the inning, it was their time to get runs on the board. Patrick Flaherty led off with a walk and Scherpa followed it up with a single to right field. Jacob Wagner drew a walk to load the bases and then Liam Poole singled to score both Flaherty and Scherpa which gave American a 2-1 lead over National.
Two batters later, Sean Roselli singled to left field to knock in Wagner and Poole to home plate.
National was able to cut into American’s 4-1 lead in the top of the third inning when Schabowski came up with his second hit of the night. His double scored Cam Lisowski and Cody Collins to cut the deficit to one run.
Schabowski led the National offense going 2-for-2 with two RBI’s. Pieczarka (triple, RBI), Lisowski (two singles), and Collins (double) also contributed offensively.
After National was able to make it a one-run ball game, that was as close as they were going to get with Scherpa on the mound for American. Scherpa threw the maximum 85 pitches, going five innings strong while striking out thirteen batters and giving up just one walk.
“For one game we were able to throw Scherpa and ride him for 85 pitches,” said American Manager Tom Flaherty. “When you’re able to do that with your ace, that’s great.”
Scherpa isn’t used to going so deep into the game as around 35 pitches has usually been his threshold.
“This is the first game that I’ve actually got to go a pretty long time,” said Scherpa.
Anthony Schabowski was impressive behind the plate with his two hits. (Photo by Kellie Adam)
Pieczarka had a solid performance for National as after the four-run bottom of the first from American, he began to really settle down. From the second inning on, Pieczarka allowed only five hits.
American tacked on one in the bottom of the 3rd and then another run in the bottom of the fourth to extend the lead to 6-3.
Sean Roselli and Liam Poole both had solid nights at the plate as they had two RBI’s each. American also saw good performances from Jay Scherpa ( single, double), Wagner (single, RBI), and Colby LaPoint (RBI).
Flaherty touched on the fun of coaching and playing against a team American is familiar with.
“We know each other, we know how all the kids play,” said Flaherty. “It’s a good game, we came ready to play, they came ready to play.”
