Adam Tremblay hit the second home run of the first inning and his first of the 2015 season as part of Westfield American’s 10-run inning. Tremblay went 3-for-3 with a walk and five RBIs in total.
WESTFIELD – The Westfield American 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars had already clinched the No. 1 seed in Saturday’s double-elimination tournament prior to their final pool play matchup with Gateway Wednesday night at Cross Street, but the hosts maintained their offensive prowess which has kept them atop the table during the past few weeks.
David Tirell (9, middle) led the Westfield American offense with a pair of home runs in the first inning, half of the Westfield home run total. Tirell finished the night with five runs batted in, three hits and four runs scored.
During their first at-bats, American plated 10 runs and smacked four home runs deep over the fence to help cruise to another win and improve their record to 6-0. The No. 1 seed will host either Westfield National or Easthampton Saturday at a time to be announced.
“The key thing for us to remember is the slate is clean right now,” said Head Coach Mike Raposo. “Regardless of what your record is, there are four teams there that all want the same thing and it’ll be fun to battle it out and see where it goes from there.”
Westfield ended its six-game pool play with 76 total runs, 16 more than the next highest run total. The home team batted around all three times they came up to the plate and laced 19 total hits, with 11 players recording at least one hit and scoring at least one run.
Joey Delgado pitched a scoreless inning of relief for Westfield American Wednesday night and was one of 11 batters to record at least one hit and score at least one run.
Four of those hits came via the long ball, all sparking Westfield’s 10-run first inning. After Jake LaBombard tripled on the first pitch and scored on a wild pitch, Brennan Jarvis drew a walk. David Tirell immediately followed by smacking a two-run home run to right field to put Westfield ahead 3-0 after three batters. After Joey Dekarski walked and Niko Kapsanis reached on a dropped third strike to put two runners on base, Adam Tremblay hit his first home run of the summer–a three-run home run to center field–to double the Westfield lead.
Jake LaBombard earned the victory in Westfield American’s four inning game, pitching the first inning and striking out two batters after walking the first two batters to lead off the game.
When the top of the order came around to bat again two batters later, the home run derby continued in style, with LaBombard and Tirell each crushing two-run home runs which landed on top of the hill in center field. After that, Westfield maintained a consistent dose of station-to-station hitting, adding eight runs in each of the next two innings.
“Anytime that you can put the ball out of the park, it gives you a lot of confidence,” said Raposo. “If nothing else, we were able to build confidence before the double elimination portion of the tournament.”
On top of the massive offensive display, Westfield showed its prowess on the defensive side of the game. LaBombard, Trent Adam, Joey Delgado and Brody Zabielski each pitched one inning of shutout baseball, with Zabielski allowing the lone Gateway hit and LaBombard earning the win.
The quartet combined for 10 strikeouts over the 17 total at-bats, with only two outs coming from a defensive play other than a strikeout. Westfield allowed a district-low 17 runs, including two shutouts during their six pool play games.
“We had four pitching performances that kept the other team off the board, so I was proud of that,” said Raposo. “As we head into the double-elimination tournament, we’re going to have to go deep into our pitching staff, so I wanted to make sure that these guys get as much experience as possible before we start that tournament.
“You can always get better defensively. The key thing that we really focus on is you can always bring your defense, regardless of whether you’re hitting that day. You never know what you’re going to run into for pitching on the other team, so if you make sure that you’re pitching and defense are strong throughout, that will keep you in games regardless of what you’re doing with the bats that specific day.”
