Westfield Baseball Wins First State Sectional Title Since 1988

Once again the Westfield baseball team came through big-time in the seventh inning.

As a result, the Blue Devils are moving on to the Group 4 semifinals for the first time in 23 years.

Second-seeded Westfield scored four runs in the top of the seventh and then after giving up two in the bottom of the seventh hung on to defeat top-seeded Perth Amboy 9-7 in Friday afternoon’s North 2, Group 4 championship game at Perth Amboy.

Westfield won the section for only the second time in this format and for the first time since 1988 when the Blue Devils defeated Bloomfield at Plainfield.

Head coach Bob Brewster said the program’s only other sectional title came way back in 1949.

Westfield, which improved to 24-4 with its seventh straight win, will next face North 1 champion Morris Knolls Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Kean University in Union in a Group 4 semifinal. Second-seeded Morris Knolls defeated eighth-seeded Union City 8-0 at home Friday in the North 1, Group 4 championship game in Denville.

Tuesday’s other semifinal will pit Central champion Manalapan vs. South champ Millville. Also on Friday, second-seeded Manalapan defeated fifth-seeded Monroe 5-2 at home in the Central Jersey, Group 4 final, while second-seeded Millville edged eighth-seeded Lenape 4-3 in the South Jersey, Group 4 title game.

The Group 4 final is scheduled to be played June 11 at one of the three Toms River high schools.

Westfield has never played in a Group 4 state championship game and, obviously, has never made it to Toms River yet.

In 1988, the Blue Devils lost in the Group 4 semifinals to Hudson County power Memorial of West New York at Rutgers. Memorial finished No. 1 in New Jersey and also in the nation that season.

The Blue Devils were playing in their first sectional final since falling at Edison in the 2007 North 2, Group 4 title game.

Brewster used three right handed pitchers Friday, with senior Justin White starting and going 5 and 2/3, junior Mike Mondon pitching one inning and earning the mound victory to improve to 6-1 with his third win in relief and senior Zach Archambault getting one out for a save.

Mondon entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth after Perth Amboy just tied the contest at 5-5 with a bases loaded walk off White. Mondon struck out the only batter he faced in the inning to keep the score at 5-5 going into the seventh.

In the top of the seventh, junior center fielder James O’Rourke led off with a sharp single up the middle and then senior catcher A.J. Murray singled to left. Senior first baseman Dan Kerr walked to load the bases with nobody out.

Then senior second baseman James Barry, who was moved up from ninth to fifth in the order with junior Matt Varakian out for the season with a broken bone in his right hand from trying to make a catch in Tuesday’s game against Hunterdon Central, hit a ground ball to short. The shortstop threw home, but his throw was high, with O’Rourke sliding underneath the catcher’s tag and scoring to put Westfield back ahead to stay for good at 6-5.

Senior designated hitter Will Riggs then put down a suicide squeeze bunt toward first base, with Murray scoring to make the score 7-5. Riggs earned an RBI, with no throw home to try to get Murray.

Steve Forgash hit a ball to short that was ruled an error, with Kerr and Barry scoring to make it 9-5.

“The seventh inning is our inning,” said Murray, with Westfield scoring 10 of its 22 runs in four state tournament games in the seventh inning.

Westfield had the leadoff batter reach base in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, with those baserunners all scoring important runs.

In the bottom of the seventh, Mondon gave up a two-run homer to Abner Rodriguez, a shot over the right field fence to pull Perth Amboy to within 9-7.

Then he hit Fernando Rosa with two outs, bringing up Jose Hernandez as the tying run.

Brewster lifted Mondon for Archambault, who had the count full at 3-2 on Hernandez. Archambault then retired Hernandez on a 6-4 fielder’s choice, with Westfield senior shortstop Tim Younger flipping to Barry at second base to end the game.

Another Westfield celebration ensued, this time for capturing its first sectional championship since 1988.

“Our motto is ‘Win and Survive’,” Brewster said. “We don’t care what it looks like.

“We’ve played four state games and so far we’ve outscored the opposition by a grand total of five runs.”

Jonathan Gribbin filled in for Varakian in left field again and came through at the plate to produce a 3-for-4 offensive performance.

“We worked on cutting down his swing because it was long,” Brewster said.

Gribbin, a junior, had an RBI-single in the second, doubled in the fifth and scored on an RBI by O’Rourke and belted a two-run double in the sixth that brought home Forgash and Kerr.

Gribbin is also the Westfield football team’s placekicker and has kicked several clutch field goals for the Blue Devils.

"The pressure is the same,” Gribbin said. “You just go out there and do your job. I was just trying to get on any way possible.”

This was probably the first nine-run game that Westfield had this season where Murray and Kerr did not drive in a single run. Murray was 2-for-4, with two singles and one run. Kerr was 1-for-3, with a double, a walk and two runs.

Perth Amboy’s season came to a close at 22-5. Senior left hander Emilio Calderon went the distance and finished his season at 11-2.

NORTH 2, GROUP 4 BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

AT PERTH AMBOY

2-WESTFIELD (24-6)                      0   2   0      0   1   2     4 – 9  11   2

1-PERTH AMBOY (22-5)               0   0   0      3   1   1     2 – 7     9  1

WINNING PITCHER (in relief):

Mike Mondon, junior right hander, (6-1)

LOSING PITCHER:

Emilio Calderon, senior left hander, (11-2)