Top of the seventh, and Westfield needed three outs to advance to the North 2, Group 4 semifinals. Senior Jack Chavez took the mound to finish out a complete game. Westfield opted to not bring in a closing pitcher, even with only a single run as their lead.
However, Chavez showed no signs of fatigue, sitting down the first man with a strikeout, looking on three pitches, then causing the next two batters to fly out to right field. His efforts allowed Westfield to beat Phillipsburg, 2-1, and cement their place in the sectional tournament semifinals.
Chavez came out the gate firing on the mound, sitting down two batters in the first inning on strikes with beautiful breaking balls. Chavez said, “It’s my first complete game of the year, and this game meant a lot to all of us.”
Westfield did what they do best in the bottom of the first: tally a run early. With two outs and the bases loaded, an unusual play brought in the first run and ended the inning. A wild pitch brought home senior Tomas Cestero. However, Westfield got caught trying to bring junior Jake Alfano all the way home from second on the same pitch, failing to take advantage of the large space between the plate and the backstop.
Both pitchers had their stuff working throughout the whole game, with only two total runs being scored through the remainder of the game. Senior Kellen Edwards brought home Alfano in the bottom of the third, but in another base-running error from Westfield, they failed to send another run home.
Phillipsburg was only able to bring one home, with a walk with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth inning. Outside of that, Chavez performed exceptionally well with runners on base and sat down nine batters on strikes through his seven innings. Only two hits occurred from the bottom of the fourth to the end of the game for both teams combined, as both pitchers threw complete games. “[Chavez] competed every pitch, which is all you can ask out of your pitcher,” said head coach Jay Cook.
The Blue Devils, however, do need some fixing in certain areas of their game. “We got a little careless on the base path. We got to dial back the aggression a little bit,” Cook said.
Westfield will take on Bridgewater-Raritan in the semifinals of the sectional tournament on the road on Friday at 4 p.m..
