For those Westhill baseball and softball fans who bundled up and ventured out to Skaneateles for Wednesday’s OHSL Liberty division slate, they received a double treat.
Alex Godzak put together a no-hitter in the baseball Warriors’ tense 1-0 win over the Lakers, while Kelly Mascari pulled off an even rarer feat – four home runs in a game – during the softball Warriors’ 13-1 win.
For Godzak, a senior left-hander, the gem came exactly one week after he signed a college letter of intent to attend Canisius College in Buffalo. It also came just after Westhill rose to the top spot in the state Class B rankings.
A weather postponement of Monday’s showdown with fellow unbeaten Homer meant that Godzak had to wait to take the mound until Wednesday, where he and Skaneateles ace Ryan Prochna engaged in a fierce duel.
For five innings, neither pitcher blinked. Godzak only allowed a single walk (intentional) and hit batsman, while Prochna was just as stingy, ending up with nine strikeouts. Westhill put two runners on base in the fourth and fifth innings, but got nothing out of it.
However, in the top of the sixth J.C. Pena led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pick-off throw and moved to third on a groundout. Now Godzak came up to the plate as a pinch-hitter and ripped a single to right, scoring Pena.
That single run held up. In the bottom of the sixth, B.J. Kerr drew a two-out walk, and Conor Herr got ahead of the count 3-0, but Godzak recovered to strike him out, his 12th K of the day.Just to be sure, Godzak struck out the side in the seventh and was mobbed by his teammates near the mound.
Not far away, another masterpiece was wrapping up – at the plate. And it was Mascari responsible for it – ironic, since she also works as Westhill’s primary softball pitcher.
It didn’t take long for the show to start. Mascari stepped up in the top of the first inning and drilled the delivery from Skaneateles pitcher Sarah Tomlinson over the fence for a three-run home run.
An inning later, Mascari returned to the plate. Again, two runners were on – and again, Mascari took it deep, part of a four-run rally that gave Westhill a 7-0 lead.
A solo shot in the fifth inning made it three round-trippers, and to cap it off, in the sixth Mascari returned, once more with two runners on, and sent one more deep drive over the fence.
All told, the four home runs produced a whopping 10 RBIs, and Mascari had five of Westhill’s 13 hits. Andrea Golembiewski, with four hits and two RBIs, offered ample support, while Kathleen Clark added two hits and an RBI.
As if all of her plate heroics weren’t enough, Mascari also threw five shutout innings, striking out seven without allowing a walk, though she did surrender five hits, about the only thing that went wrong on this memorable day.
