Westfield senior second baseman Tim Donahue, left, puts the tag on Nashoba base runner Ian Coull during last night’s MIAA Central/West State Semifinal Division 1 Baseball Tournament at the John T. Tivnan Field in Worcester. Nashoba went on to win 3-2.
WORCESTER – The Western Massachusetts Division 1 baseball champion Westfield Bombers will have to settle for a repeat in their sectional, and a top four finish in the state.
Central champ Nashoba held off Westfield 3-2 in the state semifinal game Wednesday night at Tivnan Field in Worcester, ending the Bombers’ postseason run.
Nashoba (21-3) jumped out to the game’s first lead with a run in the top of the first inning.
Nashoba lead-off batter John Militano beat out a laser of an infield hit which smacked off the glove of the first baseman and trickled into foul territory on the first base side. Miltano stole second, advanced to third on an infield error, and scored on Kevin Connelly’s sac-fly.
Westfield (15-10), no stranger to the big stage – having played in the state semis a year ago and fielding several players from the 2012-13 state hockey championship team – responded with a game-tying run in the bottom of the second.
Chris Sullivan walked to lead off the inning, and advanced all the way around to third base on Rob Sullivan’s ground out when the third baseman fielded the ball and the defense failed to move in to cover the bag. Sam Blake plated Chris Sullivan with a ground out.
Both pitchers, Westfield’s Brent Houle and Nashoba’s John Sarnoski settled in over the middle frames, yielding very few base runners. When the Chieftains did manage to get someone on base, they put Bombers’ catcher Cam Robitaille to the test. Robitaille threw out two would-be base stealers at second base (one in the 2nd, one in the 5th), keeping the opposition from taking the lead.
Westfield stranded a base runner in each of the third (Kyle Murphy single), fifth (Sam Blake reached on an error), and sixth innings (Nate Barnes single).
Nashoba finally chipped away at Westfield’s postseason warrior, Houle, in the seventh. That was no easy task considering the Bombers junior pitcher had tossed a one-hitter in the semis and came on in relief with the bases loaded and no outs in the finals to strike out the side and retire the final nine batters en route to a Western Mass championship.
Nick Campana, Sarnoski, and Ian Coull delivered consecutive base hits for Nashoba, the later of which led to one run and a 2-1 lead. A two-out, run-scoring single from John Militano made it 3-1.
It was Houle’s 17th inning pitched in a six-day, 3-game span.
Still, Westfield had its chances late.
In the bottom of the seventh, Rob Sullivan drew a lead-off walk before being picked off first base. In the eighth, the Bombers rallied within one run when Murphy reached on a single, stole second, advanced to third base on a wild pitch, and scored on Barnes’ looping single to centerfield. Barnes’ hit came on an 0-2 pitch.
Nashoba right fielder Nick Borsari also gunned down the lead runner at third on Murphy’s hit in the eighth.
Westfield reliever Matt irzyk, the WMass championship starter, kept his team alive late in the state semifinal game. The righty pitched a perfect eighth and ninth inning, retiring six straight batters over the last two innings. He struck out three.
Nashoba’s reliever, Drew Foster sandwiched a pair of strikeouts around a pop fly to end the game.
“I’m disappointed for the kids,” Westfield coach Rich Discenza said. “Brent Houle and Matty Irzyk got a chance to grow up. The burden of everything fell on those two. …They played great. We just couldn’t generate enough offense.”
