For large portions of this season, the Westhill baseball team suffered from a lack of run production, even in the many games it won.
That wouldn’t be a problem in Monday’s heat-drenched Section III Class B-1 final at Rome’s DeLutis Field, where the top-seeded Warriors’ mid-game outburst translated into a 12-3 victory over no. 6 seed Utica-Notre Dame.
This was not a challenge Westhill could take too lightly. The Jugglers had already elminated two OHSL Liberty division foes, first topping defending champion Marcellus 5-1 and then getting past no. 2 seed Homer 8-3 in the semifinal round.
Both pitchers were going on three days’ rest, but the Warriors’ Alex Godzak had thrown far fewer pitches in his previous outing as had UND’s Alex Lynch, and that would prove a factor in the steamy conditions.
Westhill had a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when the Jugglers put runners on second and third with one out. UND’s Alex Rocci could not put down a squeeze bunt, and when a charging Tyler Raux body-blocked Warriors catcher Jacob Nigolian making the tag, Raux not only was called out, he was also ejected.
Despite this, the Jugglers got to Godzak for three runs in the top of the third to briefly grab a 3-1 lead, two of them coming home on Nick Allen’s two-run double down the left-field line.
But in the bottom of the third, Westhill provided a quick answer. Two singles preceded Nigolian’s RBI double, which made it 3-2, and Kevin Karleski delivered a two-run single that put the Warriors ahead for good. David Graf made it 5-3 with a bloop single that plated another run.
Then Westhill forced a tired Lynch out in the bottom of the fourth, hitting on three more runs to make it 8-3, all of them scoring when, with the bases loaded, Karleski singled, and a Jugglers throwing error allowed two more to cross the plate.
In the fifth, two more runs came home on consecutive sacrifice flies from J.C. Pena and Joe Meluni, and Nigolian capped off his four-RBI day by belting a two-run double.
Then Pena took over on the mound and threw two scoreless innings of relief to close it out after Godzak, in five innings of work, allowed five hits and struck out eight.
On Thursday night at 7 p.m., Westhill goes to Alliance Bank Stadium to play for the overall Class B championship and a trip back to the state tournament that it conquered in 2009 and 2010.
