If the Westfield High School baseball team happens to advance deep into the Western Massachusetts Division I tournament then it will probably owe a “thank you” to Longmeadow for a challenging game Friday.
Longmeadow, despite having been eliminated from postseason contention Thursday, put up a fight against visiting Westfield, who won yesterday’s defensive-sided matchup 2-1 in extra innings.
Westfield’s clean-up batter, Adam Mayhew, drilled a single deep to the right-center field gap to score the game-winning run in the top of the eighth inning. The Bombers, who improved to 15-4, have just one game remaining against Southwick-Tolland Regional this afternoon at Bullens Field at 1 p.m. The Rams lost to Greenfield 4-0 yesterday to fall to 12-7.
“It was definitely a tough game for us (today),” said Mayhew, who finished 2-for-4 at the plate. “We knew we wanted to finish strong. Our defense played hard and their pitcher kept us off-balance.”
Longmeadow pitcher Greg Echeverria allowed just six hits and two runs, the second of which was unearned.
Westfield scored its first run in the first inning when Conner Laraway doubled, advanced to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch.
Longmeadow bounced back with a run in the bottom of the second. Jake Lazarus hit a booming triple to lead off the inning, and scored on Mike Sell’s ground out.
Westfield pitcher Andy Hess allowed five hits through seven complete innings. The Bombers defense made some incredible plays, like right fielder Kyle Murphy’s diving catch in the sixth inning to keep Longmeadow from taking the lead and third baseman Dan Jacques diving stab at a line drive to rob the Lancers of another hit in the sixth.
Westfield pitcher Lee Albertson came on in relief in the seventh inning to earn the save.
“This win was big for the seedings,” Westfield coach Rich Discenza said. “We want to be top four – we would like to get a bye.”
