If the Westfield Senior American Legion baseball team is to earn Union County’s third and final district bid, then it will have to defeat Springfield at Ruby Field Wednesday - first pitch set for at 5 p.m. - in the second and final playoff game to determine that.
However, should Westfield win, then it might not have the required 12 players needed to play in the districts.
The four districts in New Jersey, which commence Tuesday, are the beginning of the state tournament. The state finals, set to begin July 26, will take place at Moody Park in Ewing.
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“Should we win, we’ll have guys missing,” Westfield coach Ken Miller said.
After finishing fifth in the regular season with a 7-7-0 record for 14 points, Westfield won at Union 14-4 in five innings Tuesday night in the first of two playoff games to decide Union County’s third and final team that will earn a district bid.
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Roselle finished first at 13-3-0 for 26 points and Watchung Hills second at 11-5-0 for 22 points, with both of those teams gaining Union County’s first two district bids.
Roselle and Watchung Hills should be playing in District 1 at Union’s Teener Field, with the winner of Wednesday’s Westfield-Springfield game to earn a bid to District 4 at Toms River East High School in Toms River.
However, Miller said that if his team wins, then Watchung Hills might switch with Westfield and go to District 4, with Westfield then – assuming it can come up with 12 players – staying closer to home and competing in District 1 at Union.
“If we win, I can’t realistically call guys from our junior legion team and ask them to travel two hours with us just to sit on the bench,” Miller said.
First things first. A game still has to be played Wednesday.
In the regular season, Springfield defeated Westfield 3-0 at Ruby Field on June 22. Then Westfield beat Springfield 8-6 in Westfield on June 28.
“Springfield is much improved,” Miller said.
Springfield finished third in the regular season with a 9-6-0 record for 18 points. Springfield last played on Monday, falling to Roselle 2-1 at Walsh Field in Cranford.
“They have a real good shortstop (Tyler Bujnowski) and they have pitchers who can pitch and keep you off balance,” Miller said.
Miller said that among his players in line to pitch against Springfield are James O’Rourke and Evan Friedman.
Westfield, which has won seven of nine games since its win against Springfield on June 28, scored three runs in the top of the first against Union Tuesday night to take the lead for good.
O’Rourke drove in the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly to center and then three batters later Liam Devin lined a two-run double over the center fielder’s head to put Westfield up 3-0.
“Liam was only batting .150 coming into the game, but he looked good today,” Miller said.
Westfield scored three more times in the second for a 6-0 advantage. Brett Ryan was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded for Westfield’s fourth run, earning an RBI. O’Rourke followed with a two-run single to center.
Union scored all four of its runs in the bottom of the second to pull to within 6-4. The first run scored on a bases loaded walk, the second on an infield error and the final two on a fielder’s choice and throwing error.
“In the second inning we reverted back to how we were playing in the beginning of the season,” Miller said. “We didn’t get off to a good start.”
Lefty Quinn Dursee pitched the first three innings for Westfield and righty Kevin Galasso the final two. Both will be juniors at Westfield in September.
Westfield quickly answered Union’s four runs by scoring five more times in the third for an 11-4 advantage. Eric Demers drove in a run with a single and then Taylor Friss, Westfield’s final batter in the order, put down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt toward first that went for an RBI-hit.
Jonathan Gribbin, batting leadoff, belted a shot that took only one bounce to the left field fence for a two-run double. Gribbin also threw out a Union runner at the plate in the first inning. After catching a fly ball, his perfect, one-bounce throw was good enough for Westfield catcher Friss to apply the tag on a Union runner who chose not to slide.
Westfield’s final run in the fifth was provided by Ryan courtesy of an RBI-single.
Mike Mondon produced an opposite field, two-run double to the right-center gap in the fourth and Friedman walked with the bases loaded for an RBI and Westfield’s final run in the fifth.
On a 3-2 count with the bases loaded and two outs, Galasso retired the game’s final batter on a ground ball to Ryan at short.
“We’ve picked it up lately,” Miller said. “Our pitching is solid and today was the best we hit the ball all year. I think we had something like 12-14 hits. We were only batting .247 as a team going in.
“We’re getting hot at the right time.”
WESTFIELD LINEUP AT UNION TUESDAY NIGHT:
3-Jonathan Gribbin, left field, will be a senior
2-Brett Ryan, shortstop, will be a senior
1-James O’Rourke, center field, will be a senior
6-Mike Coletta, right field, will be a senior
10-Quinn Dursee, pitcher, will be a junior
12-Liam Devin, first base, will be a junior
13-Tyler Bowman, second base, will be a sophomore
7-Mike Mondon, extra hitter, will be a senior
14-Eric Demers, third base, will be a junior
17-Taylor Friss, catcher, will be a senior
Reserves:
9-Kevin Galasso, will be a junior
8-Evan Friedman, will be a senior
WESTFIELD RESULTS/SCHEDULE:
June 20: Vikings 5, Westfield 3 – at Westfield
June 21: Roselle 6, Westfield 2 – at Walsh Field
June 22: Springfield 3, Westfield 0 – at Ruby Field
June 25: Roselle 14, Westfield 5 – at Westfield
June 27: Union 4, Westfield 2 – at Union
June 28: Westfield 8, Springfield 6 – at Westfield
June 29: Westfield 5, Linden 1 – at Linden
June 29: Westfield 3, Linden 1 – at Linden
June 30: Watchung Hills 7, Westfield 0 – at Westfield
July 1: Union 5, Westfield 2 – at Union
July 5: Westfield 8, Linden 4 – at Linden
July 6: Westfield 9, Summit 2 – at Westfield
July 7: Westfield 5, Summit 0 – at Summit
Westfield finished regular season 7-7-0 for 14 points and fifth place.
First playoff game for Union County’s 3rd district bid:
July 12: Westfield 14, Union 4 – at Union
Final playoff game for Union County’s 3rd district bid:
July 13: at Springfield, 5 p.m.
