WESTFIELD – Two days after Westfield American’s 11-and-12-year-olds survived an extra inning affair at home against Belchertown, the offense cemented its potency Saturday afternoon at the hands of Amherst via more long balls after a game-tying shot sparked the Thursday night rally.
Five different American batters crushed home runs, including back-to-back-to-back shots in the third inning, to cruise to a big early lead and became the second Westfield team to defeat Amherst, 14-3, in five innings at Cross Street.
“We started off a little slow with the bats today, and then we exploded in the third inning,” said Head Coach Mike Raposo. “I’ve been coaching for a long time and I’ve never seen anything like that. I was really proud of the way the guys translated what they’ve been doing in the batting cages to a real game, and the results proved to be great today. I just hope they continue to work hard and get line drives.”
After a tight first two innings, Westfield exploded for six runs in the third, sending all nine batters to the plate and cranking four home runs to break the game open. After David Tirell started the inning with a bloop single to right field and Joey Dekarski was hit by a pitch, Joey Delgado crushed a three-run home run to right field to increase the score to 5-1 in American’s advantage.
Westfield would tack on three more home runs, all landing in the left field parking area. One pitch after Delgado’s blast, pinch-hitter Trent Adam creamed a ball over the left field fence, followed by Niko Kapsanis’ shot to the back half of the lot. Two batters later Chris Gage extended the lead and capped the power display for the designated visiting team.
“It’s a huge confidence boost to put some runs up on the board,” said Raposo. “We really want to jump out to an early lead, put the pressure on and ease our nerves on the defensive side. We’ve scored in a bunch of different ways. We have a versatile team with a lot of athletes and interchangeable players who can serve a bunch of different roles.”
Two innings later, with American up 9-2, Dekarski capped a five-run frame with a two-run home run just shy of the mound beyond the centerfield fence. American had scored its first three runs in the inning on the back of a pair of errors from Amherst pitcher Evan Perry.
On the mound, Westfield used a methodical approach and threw three different pitchers. Winning pitcher Jake LaBombard and Brody Zabielski each threw two innings and Adam closed the game by pitching an eight-pitch fifth inning to secure the productive outing.
“Jake pitched well out of the gate, overcoming some nerves and settled down in the first two innings,” said Raposo. “Brody came in and did a nice job in the middle innings and Trent threw seven strikes in a row. He’s been working hard in practice on his pitching and hopefully he’ll have a role of stopper for us on the mound.”
Amherst cut the early lead to 2-1 after one inning, but the two major run-producing innings and five errors gave the designated home team its second straight loss to a team from Westfield after falling to National, 9-2, Thursday night. On Monday night, the first Whip City Derby will take place on the city’s north side, as American visits National at 6 p.m. at Papermill Road.
