Frustrated as the Westhill baseball team may have felt by the numerous delays that plagued the Section III Class B baseball championship game, it all worked out.
For when the Warriors finally encountered Cazenovia in that title game Saturday night at Rome’s DeLutis Field, it had ace left-hander Alex Godzak in top form, which was more than enough as Westhill conquered the Lakers 8-1.
All that the Canisius College-bound Godzak did was throw a one-hitter, amassing 13 strikeouts against a single walk and moving to 10-1 on the spring. He is the first Westhill pitcher to win 10 games in a single season.
Now the Warriors can go after its third state Class B crown in four years, starting Tuesday when it returns to DeLutis Field at 7 p.m. to face Section IV champion Oneonta. The winner advances to Saturday’s state final four in Binghamton.
The saga of the sectional final began way back on Monday, at DeLutis Field, when Westhill beat Utica-Notre Dame 12-3 for the B-1 championship as Godzak pitched five solid innings.
Then the weather took over. Lightning on Monday night delayed the Class B-2 final, between Cazenovia and Sherburne-Earlville, until Tuesday, but another rainstorm pushed the game back to Thursday, at Alliance Bank Stadium, where the Lakers won 10-1 for its first-ever sectional baseball championship.
Westhill and Cazenovia now were set to meet Friday, also at Alliance Bank Stadium. But it rained again, causing yet another postponement, and with the field at the home of the Syracuse Chiefs too wet, the whole show moved back to Rome on Saturday night.
About the only good thing about the delays was that Westhill could bring back Godzak on normal rest. And it was quite eager to play Cazenovia, given that the Lakers knocked them off 5-1 back on May 4 when the Warriors were unbeaten and atop the state rankings.
That eagerness was on display in the bottom of the first inning, when Westhill got to Lakers pitcher David McEntee (who won that May 4 decision) for a pair of runs, and added two more runs in the second to make it 4-0.
By the time the Warriors had tacked on a run in the fourth and three more runs in the fifth, all the attention had turned to Godzak, who to that point had not allowed a baserunner. He was seeking a perfect game to go with the no-hitter he had thrown against Skaneateles on April 25.
Until the sixth, the perfect game held – but McEntee’s double broke it up, and he came around to score a run to break the shutout, too. Still, the Warriors cruised the rest of the way toward a sectional title.
Leadoff hitter J.C. Pena again set the tone, managing two hits and and RBI and scoring twice. Tyler Thomas also had two hits and two runs scored, while Jacob Nigolian tripled and scored a run. Kevin Karleski, Jeff Lobello and Mike Burton also crossed the plate.