Ever since the Westhill baseball team used a seventh-inning run to fight off Solvay 3-2 on April 16, the Bearcats, through a month of superb play, had waited for another shot at the Warriors.
But when that chance arrived on a cold, windy Wednesday afternoon, Westhill shut the door in a decisive fourth inning and, by a 10-3 margin, clinched the OHSL Liberty American division regular-season title.
Going into the game, Westhill and Solvay both owned 14-3 records. The Warriors had won the last 13 of those games in a row, while the Bearcats had, one day earlier, dropped a 4-3 decision at home to Cazenovia.
Brett Peterson took the mound for Solvay and, in the top of the first inning, gave up run-scoring hits to Sam Walsh and Jeff Lobello. But Peterson got payback against Lobello, Westhill’s starter, by delivering a two-run single in the bottom of the first.
The game turned in the bottom of the second. Attacking again, the Bearcats went in front, 3-2, when Mike Yaizzo doubled, stole third and scored on Sammy Kippen’s sacrifice fly. Then Solvay loaded the bases, just as it had done in the first inning.
Having seen enough, Westhill relieved Lobello with Joe Sweeny, who had pitched two innings of relief in that first encounter with Solvay. Sweeny got Josh Chrysler to fly out and end the threat, and the Bearcats didn’t score again.
Still trailing 3-2 going into the top of the fourth, Westhill, fired up by Sweeny’s relief work, lit up Peterson. Lobello led off with a single, and Ryan Roland doubled him home to tie the game, 3-3, but that was just the warm-up.
Mike Burton singled home Roland with the go-ahead run. Sweeny singled, and an error brought home Burton before Bryan O’Mara’s single plated pinch-runner Joe Carello.
Another error led to Walsh’s second run-scoring hit of the game, with O’Mara crossing the plate. Chris Coates singled, followed by Lobello, up for the second time in the inning, scoring another pinch-runner, Jacob Furco.
When Jesse Chester’s single brought home Walsh, it capped a seven-run inning, which gave Westhill a 9-3 lead as it tacked on a run in the sixth and got 17 hits overall, three each by Lobello, Roland and Walsh, who also had three RBIs apiece.
Sweeny, meanwhile, pitched 5 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, getting error-free defense behind him and holding Solvay to two hits and one walk, striking out three.
