Sports

Short Stop clinches C Division crown

Adult Softball 8.14.15WESTFIELD – The penultimate night of the summer in the Westfield Adult Softball C Division made the standings a bit more jumbled in the middle, but a regular-season champion has been crowned. Thanks to their mercy rule win in game two of the tripleheader, Short Stop Bar & Grill earned win No. 12 to finish two games ahead of Local 7 with one game left.
There was little more determined after Friday night at Whitney Park, as the standings feature a slew of congestion elsewhere. Commercial Scale dropped a doubleheader to fall into a third place tie with Vector Tool, while a win from Advanced Manufacturing placed them in a four-way tie for fifth place with East Mountain, Girards and idle Mestek, setting up a thrilling final Friday of the regular season.
Short Stop Bar & Grill v. Commercial Scale (20-9, 6 innings)
Leading the division heading into the night, Short Stop clinched the regular season title by earning a six-inning, mercy rule victory in the second game of the field one tripleheader. Dean Lacasse drove in five runs to lead Short Stop and Joe Perlak drove in four runs. Joe Halpy drove in three runs and Drew Smith clubbed the lone home run during the 19-hit parade.
The two teams drew level with three runs each in the first inning, but Short Stop pulled away initially after their second at-bats, plating seven runs to reach double-digits. Perlak”s triple drove in the eventual game-winning run to cap off the frame, but Commercial stayed in the game with five runs in the bottom of the second. The two offenses kept the game close until the sixth inning.
Up 14-9, Short Stop plated six key insurance runs to break the game open. Five consecutive RBI hits extended Short Stop”s lead, highlighted by Perlak”s two-run double, his second extra base hit of the night. Seven straight batters reached safely in the big inning after Commercial retired the first two batters quickly. The No. 1 seed in the tournament will end their summer next week against East Mountain.
K&R Machine v. Commercial Scale (12-11)
The final game of the night proved to be the closest of the evening, as K&R picked up its sixth win of the summer, walking off on Brian Gallagher”s game-winning single to give Commercial Scale a pair of losses on the night, dropping them to a third place tie with Vector Tool.
Commercial jumped out to a 6-4 lead after two innings to start their second game of the night. Pat and Ryan Cullen drove in three of the four second inning runs, but the brothers were held for one more RBI the rest of the game. Aside from their three-run frame in the fifth inning, the K&R defense held Commercial to two runs on eight hits to help keep their offense in the game.
The home team initially tied the game in the third inning, thanks to a two-run home run from Joe St. Jean to drive in Chuck Kolodziej. St. Jean led the offense with three RBIs, accounting for one-quarter of the offensive production. After Commercial extended their lead to 10 after five innings, K&R took their first lead of the game with a pair of runs in the sixth inning on a single from Kolodziej and a triple from St. Jean. One inning later, with one out and the bases loaded, Gallagher drove in the game-winning run on his first hit and second RBI of the night.
Local 7 v. East Mountain (19-16)
East Mountain looked prime to break their six-game losing streak, but the second-place club scored five runs in the sixth inning to break the late tie and give the visitors their seventh straight loss, dropping them best online casino into a four-way tie for fifth. Joe Desens and Jeremy McSheffrey led the way with four RBIs each, with Desens hitting a two-run double in the sixth to help Local seal the win.
Local 7 jumped out to a 10-5 lead after three innings on the back of their allowed three home runs. Desens opened the scoring in the first inning with a solo home run and McSheffrey blasted a two-run shot to tie the game at three after one inning. Two innings later, McSheffrey hit his second two-run shot of the game, highlighting Local”s seven-run frame.
East Mountain clawed back into the game, scoring four runs in the fourth and fifth innings to pull within a run at 14-13. Mike Russell drove in six runs to lead the visitors, hitting a grand slam to temporarily take the lead in the fifth inning and followed with a solo home run in the seventh to pull East Mountain within four runs.
Vector Tool v. Girards (23-4, 4 innings)
Vector broke away from the three-way log jam in the middle of the standings by pouring on the offense in the fourth inning, tallying 15 runs to defeat Girards via a four-inning mercy rule and climb into the top four. Twenty men stepped to the plate in the fourth inning and 18 reached safely. Nick Melo and Frank Montanez each drove in four runs, while Doug Abrahamson, Bill Heroux, Tony Melo, CJ McMahon and Doug Champagne drove in a pair each.
Vector plated four runs in each of the first two innings, led by the top of the order, which went 4-for-9 with three walks and five RBIs. Heroux and Eric Kaleta drew walks to start the game before scoring on a two-run triple by N. Melo. Montanez drove in N. Melo with a double and Abrahamson followed with a RBI triple to end the three straight extra base hits.
Advance Manufacturing v. Berkshire Industries (14-11)
In a battle between two teams at the bottom of the standings, Advance Mfg. jumped into a four-way tie for fifth place by defeating last place Berkshire in a seesaw affair to begin the action on field two. Berkshire put up a six-spot in the fourth inning, giving them an 11-9 lead, but Advance answered and regained the lead for the third time, scoring three runs in the fifth before scoring two insurance runs in the sixth inning.
Brian Morrissey and Devyn Ryan began the inning with a pair of singles to lead off the fifth inning before Kyle Atkinson lined a double for his third RBI of the game, tying for the team lead with Jeff Allen. Matt Preuss and Anthony Gragowski recorded consecutive RBIs to take the lead. Advance will try to jump in the standings in the regular season finale when they take on second place Local 7.

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