Members of the Westfield 13-Year-Old Babe Ruth team celebrate last night’s win over New Milford, Conn. at Bullens Field. Westfield won 6-5. (Photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – Who needs a state title when you’ve got a World Series berth in hand.
The Westfield 13-Year-Old Babe Ruth Baseball All-Stars, who brushed off being named state co-champs this postseason only to lose in that tournament’s final game, brought that same drive to the New England Regionals and drove off every opponent, including New Milford (Conn.) 6-5 in eight innings last night at Bullens Field to capture a regional championship.
It will be the first World Series appearance for Westfield in two decades.
“I’ve said all year long that this team has a lot of grit,” Westfield manager Mike Smith said. “We’re not overly talented, but we have a lot of heart.”
The pulses of hundreds of fans in attendance raced as the two teams sweated out a gut-wrencher. While some familiar faces continued to deliver, it took the heroics of every Westfield player to battle through a drama-filled afternoon. And some new stars were born.
Westfield struck first in the night-capper.
The Whip City punched through in the second inning, loading the bases on consecutive singles from Zach Jarvis and Matt Hastings and a Shaun Gezotis walk, and scoring on Austin St. Pierre’s bases-loaded walk.
Westfield made it 2-0 an inning later when Sean Moorhouse singled, stole second, advanced to third on a ground out, and scored on Scott Walsh’s sacrifice fly.
The great state of Connecticut would not give up though.
In the fourth, New Milford staged a two-out rally against ace Ari Schwartz, collecting an RBI single, and scoring two more runs on a single and error to take a 3-2 lead.
Westfield rallied.
In the fifth, Shaun Gezotis drew his third walk of the game, this time with the bases loaded and two outs to tie the game. Then, Westfield’s game-changer, St. Pierre, curled a line drive into left field to make it 4-3. A pop-fly ended the inning.
Westfield added some insurance in the sixth. Moorhouse singled to lead off the inning, stole second, and scored on Sean Murphy’s RBI single to left field.
Still, it was not enough.
New Milford hit four consecutive two-out singles in the bottom half of the inning, including RBI hits from Paul Dobies and Brendon Profita to tie the game at 5-5. Jake Colapietro came off the bench to make a huge defensive play at second base, preserving the tie by snaring a bounding ball and firing to first for the third out.
Westfield had a chance to reclaim the lead in the top of the seventh, but a two-out double from St. Pierre was wasted when a pop-fly ended the inning. Schwartz, who pitched 14 shutout innings in the state tournament, and had a hand in every regionals victory, finished strong on the mound in the seventh, retiring the number six, seven, eight batters 1-2-3, leaving a runner at third.
Colapietro came through in the eighth, this time with his bat, as he hit a bases-loaded single for a 6-5 lead.
“The defensive play kept us in the game, but the hit won us the game,” an ecstatic Colapietro said after the game. “When the ball went through I ran as hard as I could, I turned to the first base coach and screamed my head off.”
Sean Moorhouse closed out the eighth on the mound for Westfield, allowing only a harmless one-out single. He struck out the number two batter and caught a pop fly for the final out.
“I was just trying to stay calm, throw strikes, have them put the ball on the ground,” Moorhouse said. “I know our defense can make plays.”
In the first game, Westfield was shellshocked by New Milford 13-3 in a 5-inning, mercy-shortened drubbing.
New Milford jumped on top of Westfield with seven runs in the first inning, and tacked on five more in the second to ultimately determine the outcome in a matter of minutes. It didn’t matter who was pitching for the Whip City – Connecticut couldn’t be stopped.
Tyler Hansen and Riley Zimmerman blasted two-run doubles in the first inning, and Matt Ryan hit a run-scoring double. Hansen had an RBI double in the second, Zimmerman added an RBI triple, and the lead ballooned to 12-0.
The game was not without its share of controversy.
In the second inning, St. Pierre charged hard to home plate from third base, knocking the New Milford catcher to the ground on what appeared to be a clean play. But later in the third, Connecticut pitcher Tyler Hansen retaliated, appearing to deliberately elbow Westfield catcher J.D. Huntley on another close baserunning play at the plate. Hansen was ejected, coaches and players erupted in a verbal tirade, but the teams – and fans – settled down to finish the game, and the series.
Now it’s on to the World Series, which will be held in the state of Washington, beginning in mid-August.
