Down two runs looking to take back the game in extra innings, Westfield is up to bat. Bunt. Walk. Walk. Bases are loaded. Cranford calls timeout to make a change at pitcher, a change they will soon regret. Junior shortstop Alex Laguna walks up to the plate. The crack of the bat breaks the silence of the fans.
Cheers erupt as the ball makes its way through the gap and into the net. One runner reaches home. Then another. And another. Cranford players appear frozen, in awe of what had just happened. Laguna’s walk off awards Westfield a 13-12 victory in a hard fought victory against their rivals.
Laguna noted, “Before [my at bat], I was really pulling for Erin to get on base because we really needed that run. I felt good going up to bat. I just tried to stay calm and get on base. I was nervous, but I knew we were in a good spot.”
Senior captain Erin Doherty noted the importance of the game, after losing to Cranford 17-0 the past year. “I think that we always have a lot of excitement for the Cranford game, it’s a big rival. I don’t think anything changed with our competitiveness going into it from last year, but what I do think changed this year is that we went into it with excitement instead of nerves.”
Senior captain Catherine Heflin added her thoughts on last year’s matchups as well: “I think last game, we kind of had the mentality that once they score on us, the game is over, and this game, we wanted to fight, we wanted to win, and I think that really made the difference.”
Both teams came out swinging in the first inning. Cranford posted two runs at the top of the first, failing to capitalize on loaded bases for several at bats. Reflecting on the start of the game, Doherty said “I think that we tried to take the momentum from the first pitch and we tried to take control of the game and we did.”
Laguna opened the scoring for Westfield with a single, sending two runners home, then they added two more, taking the lead 4-2. Happy with her team’s overall performance in comparison to their last meeting with the cougars, Laguna added, “This time we kind of took it one inning at a time. Even when we were losing, we just came back and fought. I feel like last time we played a little nervous after they started scoring so this time we tried not to.”
Then came Cranford’s Seton Hall commit, Sophia Demarco. As the pitch flew across home plate, the air of the field was pierced with an absolute rocket to keep Cranford alive.
However, a typically clean Cranford team commits a rare error following a bunt for senior Gianna Puglisi to send another two runners home. The Blue Devils sit atop, 7-3 at the bottom of the second. Westfield’s stalwart defense forced three more quick outs to hold onto their lead through the bottom of the third.
Despite the four run deficit, Cranford refuses to back down. A wrinkle in Westfield’s near perfect defense lets the Cougars back into the game. The Cougars rallied with Westfield making numerous errors in the top of the fourth, taking a two run lead behind back to back triples from Cranford batters.
The Blue Devils failed to respond for two more innings, while Demarco added another home run to the board. They enter the top of the seventh down 10-7.
A massive double play between Laguna and Heflin followed by a strikeout from senior pitcher Bella Scipioni, generated huge momentum for the Blue Devils heading into the bottom of the final inning. Three runs were needed to send the game into extra innings, and three runs was what they got.
After a series of base hits, Westfield sophomore Natalie Ardente walked up to bat with two runners on base and one out. The air stood still and everyone was silent, the scene reflected a classic western standoff between sheriff and outlaw, a lone tumbleweed would not have been out of place on the field.
The Cranford pitcher wound up and released the ball in seemingly slow motion, everyone in the crowd held their breath. It would not be an understatement to assume this play would have a major hand in deciding the outcome of the shoot-out on Dorian Road. Ardente’s bat connects with the ball for a three run homer, the first home run of her career, to tie the game at 10 and force extra innings.
Ardente felt that “Hav[ing] that pest mentality like coach always tells us. Just own the box and go up there in a good mental state. We really regrouped by just maintaining the energy and having each others’ back. We knew we needed to make plays for each other out there and have that pest mentality when we all go up to hit.”
Cranford, however, was not thrown off by Ardente’s big time hit. The Cougars were able to string together some hits, cashing out with two additional runs before Scipioni’s pitching and her reliable backup collected three outs.
Westfield, down two with one last half inning to win the game, appeared calm, cool, and collected. There was no doubt in any of their minds that this game was theirs. An unsuspecting bunt from Heflin put the Blue Devils on base with their first at bat. Long fought at bats from Erin and her sister, junior Quinlan Doherty, resulted in walks. Then there was Laguna. With a memorable at bat to say the very least, she was met at second base, mobbed with the joy from her teammates who had just reached home, scoring the final three runs and taking back the victory from the Cougars grasp.
Reflecting on the game and improvements from last year, Heflin stated that “I think that sometimes we play scared and we need to start making more aggressive mistakes and get over the fact that we’re going to fail because this is a sport that revolves around failure, If we use failure to grow off of it instead letting it bring us down. I feel like that will help us a lot in the future.”
The Blue Devils look to use this victory as momentum. Cheddar notes that “We have to be us all the time, not being so responsive to the people we play and staying within ourselves a bit more, which is something we are looking to do more of.” She adds, “We are a team of great human beings and that in itself can be a great indicator for success.”
Westfield will take on another tough opponent in Governor Livingston on the road on Thursday, April 11. They look to add another win to their record and improve to 3-1 on the season.
