Westfield Newsroom

Westfield posts key road wins

Westfield Post 124’s strong start to the American Legion Baseball season continued this past week with key road wins. Here’s a complete rundown of their last four games.

Westfield 3, South Hadley 1
LANDERS FIELD, SOUTH HADLEY – J.D. Huntley was moved into the fourth spot of the Post 124 lineup – and promptly looked at a called third strike in his first at bat. It was his next three at bats, however, where he made a case for himself to stay in the clean-up spot. Huntley had three of Westfield’s six hits, drove in the tying run and scored the eventual winning run against South Hadley Post 260.
Westfield Post 124 (9-2) was coming off a tough loss in Northampton the night before and found itself trailing 1-0 entering the top of the fifth. Nick Clegg was hit by a pitch and then never stopped running on a Matt Hastings sacrifice bunt, easily reaching third. After a second out, Huntley lined a single to center to tie the game. He scored all the way from first when Jack Blake’s high fly ball to right-center was misplayed. Blake ended up on second and Westfield ended up with a 2-1 lead. Blake scored on a South Hadley error.
South Hadley managed only three hits off Ari Schwartz, and neither hit factored into their lone run in the second. Schwartz struck out eight, including striking out the side in the fifth.

Northampton 5, Westfield 3
NORTHAMPTON – Westfield Post 124 couldn’t close out the fifth inning and it proved costly against first-place Northampton Post 28. With two outs and a runner on first, Northampton worked starter Devin Baker for back-to-back walks, loading the bases. John Daley was rushed into relief and hit the first batter he faced, tieing the game at 3-3. A seeing-eye single bounced over second base, scoring two more Post 28 runners and giving them the lead for good.
Down a run, Westfield scored once in the third on an Anthony Riga fielder’s choice two more times in the top of the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. Riga walked with one out, moved to second on a passed ball, and scored on Stefan Krol’s single to center. Krol took second on the throw home, then third on a wild pitch, before scoring on Jack Blake’s sacrifice fly to deep center.
Baker struck out seven in his first start for Post 124.

Westfield 12, Easthampton 3
DALEY FIELD, EASTHAMPTON – For the second game in a row, Westfield Post 124 started slow and fell behind early. And for the second game in a row, Post 124 rallied with a big inning on its way to another road win.
Down 3-1 after leaving the bases loaded in the second, Westfield scored six runs in the fourth, the first four runs coming after Easthampton errors. J.D. Huntley singled with one out, Jacob Butler was hit by a pitch and Colin Burns worked a seven-pitch walk to load the bases. Nick Clegg’s groundball to short was misplayed, allowing two runs to score. Matt Hastings singled to score Burns and Clegg, and then scored himself after an errant pickoff throw and a Stefan Krol double. Krol scored on Jack Blake’s single to make it 6-3. A walk, two errors and an Andy Daniels single scored four more runs in the sixth.
Krol got the win, finishing stronger than he started. He gave up the three Easthampton runs in the second on three consecutive singles and a sacrifice fly. By the end of the game, however, he was virtually untouchable, retiring 10 of the last 11 batters. He finished with eight strikeouts.

Westfield 11, West Springfield 7
MITTNEAGUE PARK, WEST SPRINGFIELD – After a messy, error-filled four innings, Westfield Post 124 was losing 5-4 to West Springfield Post 207. In the top of the fifth, all that changed. Post 124 scored seven runs on its way to an 11-7 win.
Jacob Butler, in his first start for Post 124 after helping St. Mary’s win the state championship, started the winning rally by alertly swinging at strike three as it bounced past the West Springfield catcher, allowing Butler to reach first. After stealing second and after Anthony Riga’s walk, Stefan Krol doubled to score both runners and give Westfield its first lead. Jack Blake was hit by a pitch and Brian Campbell tripled to left to make it 8-5. Campbell then scored without another pitch being thrown. Looking to appeal that Campbell had missed first base, the West Springfield pitcher sailed his throw over the first baseman’s head and Campbell scored. With two outs in the inning, Colin Burns walked, stole second and scored along with Jacob Colapietro on Butler’s triple.
It took 41 pitches and 11 batters before the inning was over and with it the game. Adam Kearing hung in for the win, getting the last batter to look at a called third strike.
Andy Daniels had a pair of RBI and Burns drove in the fourth run with a deep sacrifice fly. – Courtesy of Westfield Post 124

Note: West Springfield Post 207 ended its season this same week, forfeiting the remainder of its games.

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