During the bottom of the fifth inning, Westfield and New Providence were tied 7-7 in a contentious game until senior tri-captain Jake Alfano stepped up to bat. Alfano hit a double sending two home, and the Blue Devils maintained their lead for the remainder of the game, winning the matchup 18-11.
Westfield got off to an early start being up 5-0 at the end of the third inning. Senior tri-captain Braedan Trajkovski was a huge part of this after hitting a homerun at the bottom of the third sending him and a teammate home to increase their lead.
The offense had a stellar game. Sophomore pitching-star Anthony Narciso said, “The offense did a great job today getting hits off people on base. [Alfano’s] big hit, [Jordan’s] big hit, [Trajkovski’s] big hits, it was just an amazing performance from the offense.”
Head coach Jay Cook added, “ I think we definitely swung the bat well today. We definitely came out and kept with our approach at a lot of line drives.”
On the other hand, the defense was giving up big plays. Cook said, “ Defense. We need to work a lot on our defense and show up on our defense. We need to make sure that we show up and don’t give them extra outs and don’t make our pitchers work as hard.”
New Providence found a gap in Westfield’s defense at the top of the fifth inning. Narciso was wiped out after throwing countless pitches and the Blue Devils subbed in senior Charlie McCormack to pitch. While McCormack was throwing some amazing balls, the Pioneers were able to hit a double with two RBI’s, and for the first time in the game New Providence was leading 5-7.
While this game was tense at times, Westfield was able to find their footing through some huge offensive hits leading the Blue Devils to victory. Now, Westfield continues their undefeated record, 5-0, with great momentum trailing them. Narciso said, “Everyone’s feeling great. The team is bonding and everyone’s fighting hard for these wins and will continue to fight.”
Next week Westfield will play Governor Livingston, which is a highly anticipated matchup year-in-and-year-out for the Blue Devils. “The goal is always to not look too far ahead. Looking one game at a time, being 1-0 on the day and improving each day,” said Cook.
The Blue Devils are back in action on April 17 at 12 p.m. away against Johnson. “We need to work on eliminating errors and mistakes on the field. ALJ is going to be a great game for us to be able to work on just cleaning up our play,” said Alfano.
