Tourney Season Hits Stride

Westfield North exploded for six runs – all with two outs – in the second inning en route to a shutout victory late last week.

Dallen Mochak hit a three-run homer in the second and Dillon Bazegian added a two-run shot in the third for Westfield. Connor Cottengim went 3-for-3 with two doubles.

Aidan Dunn started on the mound for Westfield. He struck out the first five batters he faced. Dunn allowed just one hit in 2 1-3 innings.  Bazegian and Mochak followed with shutout relief the rest of the way.

Westfield North, now 2-0 in pool play, will play at Longmeadow tonight at 6 p.m. The South, also 2-0, travel to Agawam. First pitch is slated for 6.

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Noah Laplante, Anthony Riga, John O’Brien, Thomas Flaherty, and Drew Carson had two hits apiece to help Westfield capture the D2 title. Mike Diamond also had a hit for the Whip City All-Stars.

Riga’s second hit scored Scott Hoiberg for a 10-run, mercy-ending.

John O’Brien pitched a solid game for Westfield, only yielding three hits over five-plus innings. Jared Iglesias gave up just one hit in relief duty on the mound.

Next up: the state tournament on July 13.

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Every time Northampton starter Andy Grygorcewicz allowed a Westfield South runner to reach third base, he made sure that player stayed at third base. Twice he closed out the inning with strikeouts (he finished with eight) and the third time easily fielded a simple ground ball back to the mound. In the end, the tall right-hander finished off Westfield South with a no hitter, winning Thursday’s ‘mercy rule’ shortened game 10-0 at Cross Street.

Westfield South fell to 1-1 in the District 2 Little League tournament. They were slated to play Easthampton and Westfield North over the weekend.

Grygorcewicz opened the game with two strikeouts sandwiched around a Tony Torres walk. Torres moved to third on a pair of wild pitches, but was stranded when Grygorcewicz got Logan Krol to ground out to the mound. In the second, Jack Blake led off the inning with a walk, moved to second on a ground ball out, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He was stranded at third by back-to-back strikeouts. Westfield South managed one more baserunner for the night. Baley Collier walked to lead off the fourth, but was stranded on third when Grygorcewicz notched his sixth strikeout on three pitches.

Westfield’s offensive woes were compounded by defensive mistakes that helped Northampton build a 4-0 lead after four innings against Collier, the Westfield starter. Northampton, the “home” team after winning the pre-game coin flip, then scored six times in the bottom of the fifth to invoke the 10-run mercy rule margin.

Two long home runs highlighted a 10-run second inning in Westfield South’s rout of Easthampton. The win raised Westfield South’s record to 2-1 in the District 2 Little League tournament.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first, Westfield South exploded in the top of the second. Jack Blake led off the inning by lining an 0-2 pitch over the right-center field fence to quickly cut the Easthampton lead in half. One out later, Colin Scanlon was hit by a pitch to begin a string of 10 straight Westfield South batters to reach base safely. Scotty Bussell singled, Tanner Koziol reached on an error, Matt Pelletier singled to score Scanlon, and Tony Torres walked to score Bussell. Mike Lurgio singled to drive in Pelletier and bring Logan Krol to the plate. Krol sent the second pitch he saw high and deep over the left field fence for the second Westfield South home run of the inning. Blake and Liam Webster followed with back-to-back singles and both scored when Scanlon doubled.

With a comfortable lead, Krol settled down after his four first-inning walks to retire the next 10 Easthampton batters. With two outs in the fourth, Easthampton’s Ely Boyle singled and Zack Kugler reached on an error, but Krol got his fifth and final strikeout to close out the mini-threat, the inning and the mercy-rule game.

Westfield South’s other runs came in the pairs, with two in the third and two more in the fourth.

In the third, Lurgio tripled and Krol walked. They both scored on Blake’s singled past the first baseman.

In the fourth, Torres and Lurgio opened the inning with walks and came around to score on Krol’s single.

Blake (3-for-3, 3 RBI), Pelletier (2-for-2, run scored), Lurgio (2-for-3, 2 runs), and Krol (2-for-3, 5 RBI) led the Westfield South offense.

Westfield South escaped a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the first without giving up a run. They weren’t so lucky the rest of the day.

Westfield North defeated South in a D2 Little League showdown Sunday at Paper Mill. North (1-2) plays again on Wednesday against Easthampton; South (2-2) is currently in second place in the district. The top four teams qualify for the semifinals on Saturday. The district final is July 16.

A very patient North team took advantage of 12 walks and two hit batsmen by four different South pitchers to score their runs.

Starting pitcher Spencer Cloutier helped himself at the plate, collecting four hits (including three doubles) and scoring five times. Ironically, Cloutier did not have a hit in North’s biggest inning, the seven-run second, although he did collect one of five walks in the inning. Jim Hagan had the only hit for North in the inning. In the fourth, North extended an 8-0 lead to 13-0 on doubles by Hagan and Cloutier, singles from Cam Davignon and Carter Cousins, and two South errors. With South being the “home” team by virtue of winning the pre-game coin flip, they went to the plate in the bottom of the fourth needing at least four runs to avoid a mercy-rule end to the game. They got 11.

Scotty Bussell led off with a single. Liam Webster and Tanner Koziol walked to load the bases before a Matt Pelletier fly ball to center was misplayed, scoring two runs. One out later, Colin Scanlon walked. Logan Krol next reached on an error and Jack Blake singled to score two more runs. With two outs, South worked three consecutive walks and added singles from Pelletier and Tony Torres to cut the once daunting lead to 13-11.

North put an end to the dramatic comeback by bringing in their third pitcher, Cousins, who shut down South the rest of the way, and then scoring three runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth. In the fifth, Hagan led off with a double and scored one out later on Cloutier’s second double of the day. With two outs Ian Willhoite walked and both he and Cloutier scored on a Ryan Rix base hit. Willhoite had the big hit in the sixth, a bases-clearing triple. – Little League public relations spokesperson John Blake contributed to this report