Bases loaded, two outs. Scotch Plains-Fanwood was in the middle of spoiling Westfield’s Senior Day as it had already scored once in the first inning. Senior pitcher Mason Gibbs needed to lock in and limit the damage.
Gibbs threw a fastball over the middle of the plate that was ripped. Luckily for Gibbs, junior Randy Davis was there and made the catch. The top half of the inning had finally come to a close, with the Blue Devils trailing, 1-0. Fans were shocked and worried.
That was until the Blue Devil offense stepped up to the plate and scored nine runs.
“After the first strikeout, I think I started thinking a little bit too much,” said Gibbs. “So my arm angle started slacking and going all over the place. And by the time the bases were loaded, I had to lock in and fix it on the fly. ”
Westfield dominated Thursday against SPF, ending the game in five innings and mercying the Raiders, 11-1.
Thursday’s Senior Day game was a one-sided story. After an almost stressful first inning, the game could barely be called a contest. In their first trip to the plate, eight of nine batters made it to first base—only Jake Alfano did not, although he had the hardest hit ball out of anyone that was unluckily caught on the run in deep center field. By the end of the game only two players would not record hits, one of which would walk once. Thursday’s top performers included Randy Davis (2-2, 1 RBI), Owen Callahan (1-2, 2 RBIs) and Leo Mangiamele (1-2, 2 RBIs and a triple). This was Westfield’s fourth game this season with more than 10 runs.
“Being able to get [the seniors] in, [it’s] a little emotional to see them right out in the field,” said head coach Jay Cook. “Eddie [Davenport] almost got one through there. [It’s] always great, we’d like them to get some more at-bats. Unfortunately the game didn’t allow it.”
Defensively Westfield performed in-step with its offense. The Blue Devils played an almost error-free game, with only 1 error. The day’s defense was highlighted by an impressive 4-6-3 double play that started with Randy Davis and finished with the ball in Trajkovski’s mitt at first. Also, in the second inning, Mangiamele, playing third, made one of the more impressive plays of the season. A ball was aired foul and angled toward a certain pair of student journalists standing in the makeshift broadcast booth. However, Mangiamele, a Naval Academy commit, showed off his Midshipmen spirit and locked in on the ball. He tracked down the foul ball and superhumanly caught it over his shoulder, not only securing the out but ending the inning in style.
The Blue Devils’ victory was their second win over the Raiders this season after previously beating them 10-4. Once again SPF proved to be little competition, sloppy in the field and at the plate. The Raiders recorded few serious hits, most of which came in the fifth inning, by which point it was too late. The Raiders continue to struggle as they maintain a losing record of 9-11. Maybe it’s time to consider a new rival for Westfield, as it has clearly had SPF’s number in every sport this year, with the exception of bowling and boys volleyball.
Westfield now looks ahead to Saturday, where it will face undefeated Cranford in the Union County Tournament semifinals at Arthur L. Johnson High School at 12 p.m. The likely pitching matchup will be the same as the last. Tomas Cestero versus Sean Woodruff. Two elite pitchers who have very different yet effective stuff. If you can bet on one thing going into Saturday, it’s that it will be a closely contested game, as the last time these two teams squared off, Westfield lost 3-0, giving up all 3 runs in the final inning after Cestero was pulled from the game due to pitch count. Westfield is one of only two teams this season to hold Cranford to 3 or fewer runs and, as Cook said this week, “I think we’ll have a better outcome.”
