Westfield American Legion Post 124 third baseman Connor Sas, left, makes the tag on South Hadley Post 260 runner Connor Sheridan during last night’s game under the lights of Bullens Field. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – Westfield Post 124 looked up to a former Saint for a bit of a lift in the opening round game of the 2013 American Legion Baseball playoffs.
Matt Plasse, a former hurler for the St. Mary Saints high school baseball team, delivered a perfect 3 1-3 innings of no-hit relief in Westfield Post 124’s 7-6 comeback victory over South Hadley Post 260 Monday night at Bullens Field.
The best-of-3 series shifts to Landers Field at South Hadley High School Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. If a third game is necessary, it will be played at Westfield State University Thursday night at 5:30.
Plasse entered the game with Westfield trailing 6-3 with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, and two base runners on for South Hadley. He forced a ground out to end any further threat.
Plasse retired 10 straight batters, including five straight strikeouts over the fifth and sixth innings.
Westfield rallied for three runs in the fourth, and scored the go-ahead run in the fifth.
In the fourth, Sam Blake walked, and Cam Robitaille and Connor Sas hit consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. Jake Toomey hit a one-out RBI single to left field. An error on the relay throw brought Westfield within one, 6-5. Nate Barnes drew a walk. Ball four got away from the catcher, and the tying run scored.
Westfield scored the go-ahead run in the fifth. Rob Sullivan led off the inning with a walk and stolen base. Then, with two outs, Evan Moorhouse smacked a liner off the glove of South Hadley reliever Joseph Ciolek that trickled in for the game-winner.
Plasse recorded a 1-2-3 seventh inning to preserve the victory, including a sky-high fly ball to South Hadley starting pitcher Matt Beauchemin, who had gone 3-for-3 in his previous at-bats.
“(St. Mary High School coach) Troy Collins always put me in this type of situation,” Plasse said of his successful career on the mound for the Saints. “I’m used to it. I was in there doing my thing to get outs to help our team win.”
Westfield jumped out to the game’s first lead with Kyle Murphy’s lead-off double in the first, followed by Nate Barnes’ RBI single. South Hadley tied the game in the second with a bases-loaded RBI single from Michael Croke. Post 260 took the lead with Connor Sheridan’s bases-loaded walk.
Westfield tied the game 2-all in the bottom of the second with a Connor Sas two-out, run-scoring single.
In the third, South Hadley jumped ahead with RBI singles from Joseph Ciolek and Michael Croke, sandwiched around a run-scoring fielder’s choice to give Post 260 a 5-2 advantage. In the bottom half of the inning, Tim Donahue manufactured a run by hitting a double, advancing to third base on a fly out, and scoring on a passed ball.
South Hadley reclaimed a three-run edge in the fourth on a base hit and bobbled ball by the outfielder, setting the stage for Westfield’s comeback.
“We’ll take it – we scrapped this out,” Westfield Post 124 manager Don Irzyk said. “We gave away too many runs early. (Starting pitcher) Matt Irzyk was not super. He was not sharp but did enough (to keep us in it).”
“(Our players) never gave up,” he added. “They kept chipping away to pull through. I’ve got to be happy what these guys did.”
