Last time Westfield played Cranford it was an incredible pitchers’ duel. Tomas Cestero pitched 6.2 innings and held the undefeated Cougars to 0 runs. Westfield’s defense was immaculate and, despite giving up a couple hits, stopped any permanent damage from being done. The Blue Devils played in step with one of the best teams in the division and a top team in the state. On the other side of the ball was Sean Woodruff, who pitched 7 complete innings, striking out 4 Blue Devil batters, while only throwing 88 pitches. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they gave up three two-out runs in the seventh inning that sealed the game and the loss. But the close game marked great potential for the future. That potential was unfounded Saturday as No. 4 seed Westfield lost to No. 1 Cranford, 9-2, in the Union County Tournament semifinals at Arthur L. Johnson High School.
Immediately after Westfield took the defensive side of the field, things went haywire. The Cougars quickly recorded a single in their first appearance at the plate against Westfield starter Cestero. This was then followed by a line drive to center field from New Jersey’s No.1 ranked third baseman, Ryan Jaros. After recording the first out of the inning, a batter was walked. Then two batters walked. Out of nowhere a pitch was thrown wild. The scoreboard read 1-0 in favor of the Cougars. After some more miscues from Westfield, and hard hits from Cranford, the scoreboard showed a battering 6-0. It was only the first inning.
Saturday’s game, which was rife with one-sided play, was an extreme juxtaposition from the play seen from Westfield just a couple weeks ago. At the plate, the Blue Devils were overall unsuccessful. Besides a couple of solid base hits peppered throughout the game, the Blue Devil bats were dry. In Westfield’s previous three games it outscored opponents 22-9. Today the team struggled to find itself in any sort of scoring position. Sparks of hope lit up in the seventh inning when multiple Westfield batters recorded hits, helping them find themselves on base. However no fire could be found.
“The good teams hold you accountable for [errors, and] they hit the ball well, so you gotta give [Cranford] some credit, Tomas is tough, tougher to hit, [but] they did a good job,” said Jay Cook, Westfield’s head coach.
Starting Cranford pitcher Sean Woodruff was dominant, similarly to his last outing. So dominant, in fact, that his day ended early because his team had cushioned him with a 9-run lead. Woodruff was one of three pitchers on the mound for the Cougars, none of which gave up more than 1 run as they all cruised through the Blue Devil lineup, proving to many why Cranford’s team ERA is an overwhelmingly low 2.04. After Woodruff was Dan Olear who was followed by Shea Grady. Grady closed out the game in the seventh inning, and Woodruff would be awarded the win.
Westfield did flash some signs of life throughout the game when pitcher Jack Chavez came in to relieve Cestero. After Cranford scored its ninth and final run of the game, Chavez was hoisted into the action. He did as he was supposed to, and delivered. He shut out the Cougars from there, finishing the game with 6 strikeouts over 3.1 innings pitched, walking no batters and allowing no runs.
On Chavez’s performance, Cook said, “We tweaked some things with Coach Sloan and we saw the benefits of doing that today. He really competed out there, and that is the Jack that we expect to see time in and time out.”
Westfield now must look forward to its upcoming schedule as it prepares to take on the state sectional tournament. The team still has four regular season games remaining as well, with the soonest being the matchup against New Providence on Monday. New Providence is currently 7-12 on the year, and the last time the two teams squared off, the Blue Devils came out the victor, with a 7-5 win.
“We just need to shore up the defense, really compete on the mound, and then continue to have some quality at bats,” Cook said about what can be improved for the state tournament. “As this game progressed, obviously with a different pitcher on the mound, we started to put together some quality at-bats.”
