Trailing in the bottom of the fifth inning, 10–1, it seemed as though the game was settled for the Blue Devils. They had struggled thus far in every aspect of the game and could not find an answer for their counterparts, the Union Catholic Vikings. Defensively, they struggled with numerous errors that contributed to the Viking onslaught, and offensively, batters looked to be asleep, as they watched strikes zip by early in counts. On the mound, the struggles continued. Junior right-handed pitcher Jack Chavez was clearly teetered by the less than ideal weather conditions and the struggles from the defense behind him.
“We keep digging ourselves into these early-game holes and it kind of puts everything else under a microscope making us need to be perfect since we are playing behind,” said head coach Jay Cook. “Unfortunately it is really hard to be perfect consistently.”
The victor had already seemed decided—trailing by nine runs late in the game usually means little to no chance of a comeback. That was until the Blue Devils got a hold of the momentum. Union Catholic pitcher Nick Pellegrino came in to relieve Adam Gross in the bottom of the fifth inning. After Gross delivered a relatively clean game, allowing only 1 run to Westfield in his 4+ innings of work, Pellegrino hoped to do the same. He did not. Once Pellegrino took the mound, Westfield caught fire. Tomas Cestero opened the barrage of scoring for the Blue Devils, as he cracked a two RBI double. The next hitter, Kellen Edwards, knocked Cestero in with a single of his own. If you blinked, you might have missed it, because just like that, it was a 6-run game. Julian Montez followed in Edwards footsteps, as he hit a bloop single that drove in two runs. After 5 innings, the Blue Devils only trailed by 4.
One inning later, Naval Academy commit and senior co-captain Leo Mangiamele launched the ball 400+ feet into the center field trees for a two-run home run. It was his first bomb of the year and pulled Westfield within two. Owen Callahan, Ithaca commit and senior co-captain, followed Mangiamele’s 2-run homer with a double of his own. A few batters later, sophomore Braedan Trajkovski popped the ball sky high into shallow left field, which was lost by the Union Catholic outfielder, and eventually fell into the grass which allowed Callahan’s pinch runner to score. Westfield was now within one run.
After junior pitcher Nic Labin closed out the game with two strikeouts, and Mangiamele made a superhuman, Willie Mays-esque over-the-shoulder catch, Westfield had one final shot to take the lead in the bottom of the seventh. The first out came quickly, as did the second. Westfield had a man on second base and Callahan now stepped up to the plate. Callahan took the first strike and fouled off the second pitch, making the count 0-2. The next pitch, Callahan crushed the ball into deep center field. Fans optimistically watched the ball travel but their hopes were overcome with sighs as the ball fell into the glove of the diving center fielder. The game was over and so was the dream comeback. The Vikings held on for a 10–9 victory.
Westfield crawled back from an almost insurmountable deficit and found itself quickly within striking distance. Despite a disappointing ending for fans and a heartbreaking loss for the players there is an upside. The beginning of the game was rife with errors and struggles. The weather made the field a hostile environment to its players and Union Catholic took advantage.
A similar scene was displayed by Westfield against Summit in its first game of the year. This team has struggled defensively this season thus far, giving up 8 runs to Summit and 10 to Union Catholic, but they have improved. Through one of the toughest of circumstances a team can find themselves in, Westfield persevered, coming up short but barely. Not only do the Blue Devils have the momentum from the latter part of this game, but also they have a shot to bounce back tomorrow and get their first win of the season at New Providence. New Providence is 1-1 thus far this season and defeated Union Catholic 8–0 in its first game of the season. Westfield has defeated New Providence in four of its last five meetings, but will need to help itself defensively and string together timely hitting in order to come out with its first win of the season.
