LONGMEADOW – Cody Collins stepped into the batter’s box with a chance to be the hero for Westfield National with the score tied at five. With runners on second and third and just one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Collins capitalized on his chance.
A single up the middle for Collins allowed his teammate, Devin Werbiskis to cross home plate, and give Westfield National the 6-5 walk-off win over Longmeadow in a 10-11 division game at Strople Memorial Field.
“I went up there just trying to put the ball in play with a guy on third,” said Collins.
Westfield was the first team to get on the board after Anthony Schabowski hit a hard fly out to allow Collins to tag up from third in the bottom of the first.
As Longmeadow took the bats in the top of the second, just like that, they hung up five runs on Westfield National to take the 5-1 lead.
Westfield National’s players are getting advice from their coaching staff in between innings. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Having runners on first and second, Longmeadow’s Braden Costas singled to center to load the bases. Quinn Wall then stepped up to the plate and delivered a two-run RBI to right center that gave his team a 2-1 advantage.
As Westfield was still unable to record an out, a couple bad throwing errors in the field allowed Costas to score and extend the lead. Joey Tranghese then delivered a pitch to left field in which Dylan Gibson made a nice play in the field, but Wall tagged up and put the score at 4-1. After Jimmy Chadwell was able to reach first base off of a fielder’s choice, three wild pitches allowed Chadwell to reach home plate and give Longmeadow the 5-1 lead.
Westfield National was able to slowly cut into Longmeadow’s lead as they tacked on two runs in the bottom of the second inning.
Anthony Schabowski was then able to make the contest even more interesting in the bottom of the third when he belted a homerun over the center field fence to cut the deficit to just one run.
Pitching for Westfield National, Schabowski then faced a crucial situation in the top of the fourth when Longmeadow had the bases loaded with just one out.
The potential danger from Longmeadow didn’t apparently scare Schabowski as he struck out two Longmeadow batters in a row to avoid any damage.
“Anthony pitched great,” said Manager Shane Collins. “He came back and shut them down.”
Anthony Schabowski had a solid performance on the mound for Westfield National. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Schabowski was able to pitch four strong innings, only allowing two earned runs. Ethan Porter relieved Schabowski and pitched the final two innings.
Wall led the Longmeadow offense with two RBI’s. Brady Fellows got the start on the mound and went three innings. Chadwell came in for relief, followed by Furnelli in the bottom of the sixth.
“We just gave too many opportunities away,” said Longmeadow Manager John Walczak. “It’s a tough way to lose.”
Longmeadow is now 0-2 while Westfield improves to 2-0.
Manager Collins was very pleased with the outcome for his team.
“It’s a huge win,” said Manager Collins. “A huge win against a very good team.”
