No. 5 seed Westfield faced off against No. 12 Woodbridge on Tuesday at home in the opening round of the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament and emerged victorious, defeating its opponent, 6-2. The game consisted of both stellar pitching from Bella Scipioni and Grace D’Angelo as well as timely hitting from Gianna Puglisi, Erin Doherty and Catherine Heflin.
It was only a week and a half ago that the Blue Devils seemed unstoppable. Heading into their Union County Tournament semifinal against Governor Livingston, Westfield was riding high off a four-game win streak. In those four games the Blue Devils dominated opponents, including a 13-3 victory over Arthur L. Johnson, a team they previously lost to 14-4. That streak ended in a close loss to Governor Livingston in the aforementioned semifinal.
Following their UCT run, the team dropped another game. This time against an Immaculata team ranked in the top 10. Westfield lost, 6-1, in a game that was nothing more than a tune up for Tuesday’s matchup.
Tuesday’s game brought a similar sight to the one present just a couple weeks ago. Despite questionable officiating behind the plate, the Blue Devils dominated. After the first two innings, where the Blue Devils left a runner on second base both times, Westfield finally broke into the score column in the third inning. Puglisi stepped up to the plate in a key spot, with runners on second and third and two outs. The Blue Devils needed a big hit, and that is exactly what Puglisi gave them. She found the gap in the infield and, just like that, both runners came around and scored. The Blue Devils now led 2-0. From there they couldn’t stop, scoring 2 runs in both the fifth and sixth inning and vaulting ahead to a 4-run lead. Doherty finished the game 3-3 at the plate and recorded a walk.
“I just think we were a little comfortable in the beginning and we came in thinking that we were going to win the game,” said Doherty. “So I think it took us a while to get energetic. Once there was a questionable call at third base I think that really pumped us up and gave us the momentum to really stomp down.”
The game most likely should have been 7-2, but a Blue Devil score was called back after it was determined that a Blue Devil player did not tag up properly in a routine sac-fly situation.
“I think there’s a couple of things you have to control [and] what you can’t control [we] just have to let go and the good news is our team did that,” said head coach Caitlin Cheddar.
Defensively the Blue Devils soundly secured their victory through clean infield play and good pitching. They did not record an error in the game. The victory will count as a win for Scipioni, who pitched five complete innings.
The team now looks forward as it prepares to face No. 4 seed Bayonne on Friday. Bayonne currently holds an 18-10 record, losing six of its last 10 games. Friday’s matchup will require the Blue Devils to adapt to a slightly different field as they prepare to face off on turf in the sectional quarterfinal.
“We’re gonna practice a little bit on turf tomorrow to get prepped for their field, which is a little bit different than ours and, ultimately, we just got to show up and play a good game, and it will take care of itself,” said Cheddar.
