Teammates congratulate Westfield’s Cody Garwocki after Garwocki clocked a home run, one of the team’s three long balls yesterday. (Photo by Chris Putz)
LEOMINSTER – The Westfield South Little League Baseball 12-Year-Old All-Stars sure did have a blast in their second game of the sectionals.
Westfield South blasted three homers – two from Tyler Delgado and one from Cody Garwocki – in a 6-4 win over Leominster National. The South improved to 2-0.
It didn’t take Westfield South too long to get their home run swing going.
Delgado hit a two-out solo shot in the first inning. But Leominster responded with a long ball of its own from Lucas Cordio in the second. Westfield bounced back as Delgado clubbed another, a two-run dinger.
Leominster scratched out two runs in the third to tie the game at 3-3 before Garwocki smacked a home run to reclaim the lead 4-3. But the game was soon tied when Tyler Gauthier launched a home-run shot in the bottom of the fourth.
The game remained tied until the top of the sixth. Garwocki led off the inning with a single, pinch runner Cam Sporbert advanced to second base on a passed ball. And then with one out, Nate Bonini hit an RBI double and Connor Koziol hit a ball down the right field line for another run.
Koziol started the game on the mound for Westfield South before giving way to reliever Adam Kearing in the fourth. Kearing caught fire, striking out the side in the fifth and getting out of bases-loaded jam in the final inning by forcing a ground out to end the game.
“We’ve seen all kinds of games,” Westfield South 12s manager Mike Raposo. “Comeback victories, lopsided victories, but never a tight one like this. We had to get this out. It was nice baseball, really enjoyable.”
It was an emotional afternoon for Raposo, who said it was tough watching the game without catcher Jack Yvon, sidelined by a season-ending injury.
“The guys really hung together and picked it up,” Raposo said. “And we pulled off the victory.”
