Braeden Trajkovski stepped up to the plate with the chance to be a hero. There was one out, and two men on base, in the bottom of the eighth inning. In the top half of the inning, Arthur L. Johnson once again took the lead, and all the Crusaders needed to do was get Trajkovski out to win as the game was in extra innings.
The first pitch went by. Strike one. Trajkovski reassessed himself and went back to the plate. The second pitch flew from Mike Pedalino’s hand. Strike two. The game was on the line and Trajkovski was the Blue Devils’ last hope. He saw his pitch, swung and slam! The ball was ripped into center field. One man scored, two men scored, and bang, the game was over. Trajkovski hit a walk-off double, as Westfield completed an incredible 7-run comeback to win, 9-8.
“I was just looking for the fastball and I just took the first two breaking balls,” said Trajkovski. “But since I knew he was not going to throw me a fastball because I kept turning off of them, hitting foul balls, I just waited for the breaking ball and I got into it.”
Westfield conquered ALJ in an absolute thriller, earning its fifth consecutive win.
The Blue Devils began the game with a rocky start. Sophomore Grant Como started on the mound and had both a great and turbulent game. Como began the first inning with a couple of quick strikeouts. Things seemed sealed until a confusing play at the plate that led to three Crusaders crossing the plate and an early ALJ lead. Como carried on until the third inning, where he finished with 7 strikeouts on the day, 4 earned runs, 7 hits and 6 runs. Westfield found itself in an early 6-run deficit to ALJ—unexpected, but not unfamiliar, territory.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that Westfield faced off against Union Catholic in the season’s home opener. Much like this game, Westfield found itself in a large deficit with what seemed to be little hope of a comeback. In that game Westfield trailed by 9 runs and worked its way back to within 1 but was unable to complete the comeback. Tuesday’s game was a different story.
“Today was a little bit different than our past four games that we’ve had,” said head coach Jay Cook. “We had to battle back here and we dug ourselves into a hole but we showed a lot of adversity. [That’s] certainly something you’d like to see when you’re down 7-nothing [and] it looks a little bleak. We got a lot of good pieces.”
Going into the fourth inning, Westfield was desperate for any sort of offensive spark. In the previous innings the Blue Devils moved runners into scoring positions, but ultimately failed to convert. It was in the fourth inning that the offense finally found its groove. By the end of the fourth inning Westfield lay within 3 runs.
Westfield not only improved at the plate, but also on the mound. After a tough outing on the mound, Como exited the game and was replaced by senior Mason Gibbs. Gibbs came in and immediately made an impact. Gibbs dominated, pitching 4 innings, striking out 8 batters, walking 4 and giving up only 1 run. This was Gibbs’s third time on the mound this season, pitching more Tuesday than he has in any of his other appearances. Gibbs has relinquished only 1 run in his last 8 innings pitched and has an ERA of 0.88, second on the team behind Kevin Dowling, who holds an ERA of 0.78. Dowling also sustained an injury during the game after sliding into third, however before being injured Dowling went 3-3 and scored a run.
“Mason Gibbs I thought came in and did a great job of kind of holding us at that point,” said Cook.
After fighting back the entire game, Westfield finally was able to pull within one run going into the seventh and final inning. Westfield, trying to avoid any repetition of the Union Catholic game, refused to let this game slip through its fingers. After a flurry of errors by the ALJ infield, Westfield tied the Crusaders but was unable to win the game in seven innings. The game went into extra innings, and fans huddled together to stay warm and support the Blue Devils.
At the top of the eighth ALJ pulled ahead, scoring one run off Nic Labin, who came in to relieve Gibbs. Labin then retired three ALJ batters, giving his Blue Devil teammates a chance to win the game. Now at the bottom of the eighth, Westfield needed a big play. That’s when senior co-captain Owen Callahan came up to the plate and immediately launched the ball into the outfield for a lead-off single. This hit was Callahan’s first and only hit of the game, however, it was one of the most important hits of the game. Two batters later, junior Kellen Edwards put his body on the line and got hit by a pitch. With a man on first and second, Trajkovski stepped up to the plate, and the rest is history.
Westfield pulled off the incredible comeback that previously eluded it and continued its incredible five-game winning streak. The Blue Devils now look forward to their game Wednesday against 5-3 Dayton. One thing for sure, this Westfield team is heating up with no signs of slowing down. And as all fans have stated, the Blue Devils are constructing a winning streak and the whole team must put their hard hats on and get back to work.
