Joe Sweeny enjoys pitching against Solvay – and the Westhill baseball team is glad for it.
Sweeny’s four-hit gem, combined with plenty of early run production and superb defense, helped the top-seeded Warriors defeat the no. 4 seed Bearcats 6-0 in Sunday’s Section III Class B semifinal at Onondaga Community College and earn a trip to Tuesday’s final against no. 2 seed Holland Patent.
That Sweeny got the start wasn’t a surprise. The right-hander had thrown 5 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just two hits, on May 20 in Westhill’s 10-3 win over Solvay. Now Sweeny was back, opposing the Bearcats’ Josh Rutkowski.
Westhill didn’t waste much time getting out in front. Brian O’Mara led off the bottom of the first inning by walking on four pitches, went to second on a stolen base and got to third on Brad Canavan’s single. Chris Coates followed with an RBI single that scored O’Mara, and Canavan later scored on a groundout.
A strange sequence followed in the bottom of the second. With runners on second and third and one out, Solvay replaced Rutkowski on the mound with Jake Dippold, who faced one batter – Canavan, who bashed a two-run triple to double Westhill’s lead to 4-0.
Then, since he hadn’t left the game, Rutkowski returned to face the very next batter, Sam Walsh, who beat out a grounder that allowed Canavan to score.
The Bearcats went through two more pitchers before Sammy Kippen, who took over in the fourth inning, settled in for the duration, only allowing a run in the fifth on a Ryan Roland walk, two wild pitches and a sacrifice fly.
But a single run was all that Sweeny needed, along with some terrific defense. Contrasting Solvay’s trio of errors, the Warriors did not commit a single error, and made several fine plays to rob the Bearcats of hits, especially third baseman Jesse Chester, who snared three different hard-hit shots by game’s end.
All of this good play will be needed for Westhill against Holland Patent, who is riding an 18-game win streak and has beaten two of the Warriors’ OHSL Liberty division rivals, Bishop Ludden (7-1) and Bishop Grimes (4-0) in the sectional tournament.
The winner goes into the state Class B tournament, with the regional final Saturday against Section IV champion Oneonta Saturday at 2 p.m. at Broome Community College in Binghamton – the same venue where the state final four will take place on June 13.
