WESTFIELD – The Westfield Senior Softball All-Stars clinched the Sectional championships Monday evening, sweeping Spencer in their best-of-three series at Sadie Knox, but it took a little while.
After putting up double-digit runs in their 13-6 game one victory Saturday in Central Massachusetts, the visitors held Westfield to a single run through three innings until the bats woke up one inning later. Six sharp hits to the outfield gaps produced six runs and gave Westfield a commanding lead en route to a 10-4 victory.
“These girls have worked incredibly hard,” said Head Coach Ray Neilsen. “There are very, very strong players in Westfield and it was overdue to get this. It’s nice to see these girls’ hard work pay off. We need to be more students of the game mentally. We need to be stronger defensively (because) defense wins games.”
Seven different batters recorded a RBI in the 17-hit performance for Westfield, who sharply hit Spencer starting pitcher Michelle Lamothe from the initial inning. Abby Charvat hit a two-run double in the six-run fourth inning, where Westfield strung together several hits for the first time in the game.
Erica Wolfe drove in the inning’s first run on a groundout to score Charvat. With two outs, Shannon Sullivan dropped in a bloop double to continue the inning for the top of the order. Katie Neilsen, Libby Irwin and Morgan Zabielski hit consecutive run-scoring hits to take the lead and Charvat added her two-run double to conclude the frame.
“At first, they were a little intimidated,” said Neilsen. “We’ve faced (pitching) harder than that, we throw harder than that and we practice harder than that, so all of a sudden they ripped the ball once they got their confidence. It wasn’t the start that we’d like, but all their practice and hard work finally paid off against a decent pitcher.”
Game one winner Charvat earned the start in game two and held Spencer to two runs, but her high pitch count gave Irwin a relief appearance. From the third inning, Irwin’s accuracy and ability to locate her pitches shut down Spencer’s offense, allowing one hit in her five innings of work and retiring the first 11 of 12 batters to earn the win in the circle.
“Abby’s more of a power pitcher and when she’s on, she’s on,” said Neilsen. “Libby’s more of a control pitcher that will hit the plate in different areas. With her, we changed our defense a little bit to give her more support and it worked.”
The sectional champions will head east later this week for the state tournament, where they will face Woburn at Gonsalves Park. Westfield will advance to the New England regional tournament if they win the best-of-three series.
