LONGMEADOW – Westfield Post 124 closed their regular season out with a road victory Friday, defeating host Longmeadow 14-2 at Longmeadow High School.
In what Westfield coach Don Irzyk referred to as a “marathon effort”, Westfield continually wore down Longmeadow behind a balanced offensive night and a dominant outing for pitcher Matt Irzyk, who bumped his record up to 5-0 on the season and recorded 10 strikeouts on the evening.
The win places 14-4 Post 124 in second place in the final regular season standings for their division and byes in both the first and second rounds of the postseason tournament.
“It’s a good thing, because these games are all single elimination games, and once we start there will be two four-team brackets,” explained Irzyk. “It’s double elimination out of that, and then the two winners will play a two-out-of-three series to move on to the states. Getting the byes in the first two rounds is huge.”
Leftfielder Tim Kelleher of Westfield High School registered three hits and scored four runs on the night, including a triple and two singles, while third baseman Geoff Sobotka of Gateway Regional High School went three-for-four with three runs.
“The bottom of our order had ten runs scored, so they really carried us tonight,” Irzyk said. “They had 3 runs scored in the bottom of the fourth, 3 runs in the bottom of the fifth, 2 in the sixth, so it was very pleasant.”
“I’m happy with how we played. We were shorthanded tonight, there is no question about it. We only had ten guys, including Cam Robataille with a pulled hamstring,” Westfield’s skipper added. “We should be coming back to full strength as far as depth (going into playoffs).”
The date of Westfield’s first playoff game is to be determined.
