In the short span of a week, the Westhill baseball team’s elite status – unbeaten, no. 1 in the state in Class B – has taken a couple of hits, and even the weather didn’t cooperate.
This rough patch culminated Thursday afternoon, when the Warriors fell 1-0 to Homer, exactly one week after Westhill beat those same Trojans 2-0 at home in what was, at the time, a clash of two unbeaten sides.
Of course, Westhill’s unbeaten status didn’t even last 24 hours after the Homer win, for a day later it got stunned by sub-.500 Cazenovia 5-1, causing a tumble to no. 8 in the state rankings. Worse yet, the heavy rains last Tuesday cost the Warriors a chance to bounce back against suddenly-hot Marcellus.
The unexpected layoff led to Westhill’s trip to Homer, who had the no. 10 state ranking. Not only had the Trojans burned for a week for payback, it also had Peyton Boice, going up against Warriors star Alex Godzak in a rematch of their pitcher’s duel from seven days earlier.
Through three innings, it was 0-0, the two aces picking up right where they had left off on May 3. Other than a leadoff single from Chase Davis, Godzak had not allowed a hit, either.
Then, in the bottom of the fourth, Godzak struck out Brent Quinlan – but the ball got past catcher Jacob Nigolian, allowing Quinlan to reach first base.
And Quinlan didn’t stop running, as he stole second and moved to third base on a groundout. When Leo Riley lofted a pop fly that got caught up in the gusty winds and eluded the Westhill infielders, Quinlan raced home.
In the fifth, Godzak was taken out, and J.C. Pena pitched two shutout innings of relief (with four strikeouts)to keep the margin at a single run. However, the Warriors could not get to Boice, who surrendered just two hits, one each to Nigolian and Will Downs, and two walks to Pena, while earning 10 strikeouts.
As this went on, Westhill’s softball team engaged in its own tight contest with Homer, falling by a score of 6-5.
In the first of two meetings with the Trojans, the Warriors moved ahead 2-0 in the first inning and 4-3 in the fourth inning. Both times, Homer came back, scoring twice in the bottom of the fifth to seize a 5-4 lead.
And there it remained until the seventh. Westhill poked across a run to tie it, 5-5, but in the bottom of that frame Alyssa Morgan, who had already hit a home run for the Trojans, blasted a triple that scored the winning run.
Morgan had four RBIs and also pitched a complete game, striking out eight. Against her, Westhill teammates Andrea Golembiewski and Gwen Dougherty each had two hits, while Erica Lobello drove in a pair of runs and Kelly Mascari added an RBI.
