Westwood Cardinals U10 Team Rolling to Playoffs

The U10 Westwood Cardinals won their fourth and fith game in a row, first defeating Ramsey at home on July 13, 8-4; then going on the road to beat Waldwick on July 18 by a score of 11-1.

Against Ramsey, the Cardinals broke open a scoreless game in the fourth with three runs. Jillian P reached with a one-out single, followed by a hit-by-pitch for Katie A. With two outs, Sam L reached on an error, then Ally D (walk), Shannon M (single) and Lauren B (walk) each drove in a run. Westwood then broke it open in the fifth with a two-out rally. Delaney F, Molly M, Hailey V, Jillian P and Katie A all reached based and scored, Tina F hit a two-run single and Ally D had an RBI base hit. Waldwick scored one in the sixth and three in the seventh, but it wasn't enough as the Cardinals held on for the win. 

Tina and Sam combined to pitch 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball, giving up only two hits. The Westwood defense continued to be stellar, with ground-ball outs recorded by Jillian, Sam, Shannon, Tina, Ally and Molly M. Pop-ups/line drive outs were made by Tina, Sam and Ally. Molly as catcher continued to do an excellent job of keeping rival runners close to their base with her frequent pick-off throws.

The team's fifth consecutive victory, against Waldwick, featured outstanding pitching from Tina (three innings, no runs on two hits), Sam (three innings, one run on, one hit) and Kaitlyn K (one shutout inning, one hit). Combined, the girls only walked four batters in the game.

Scoring runs in each of the first five innings, the Cardinals kept up their recent hot hitting. In the first, Sam drove in Tina with a two-out double to make it 1-0 Westwood. Lauren B hit an RBI double to bring Shannon home, and Delaney drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 3-0 in the second. In the third, Katie A walked, Tina doubled to make it second and third, Sam drove in a run with a ground ball out and Ally hit an RBI single to make it 5-0. The runs kept on coming, as Kaitlyn K hit a two-run single down the left field line to bring home Lauren and Annaliese G in the fourth to increase the lead to 7-0. Four runs in the fifth completed the scoring for Westwood: after Molly, Jillian and Tina walked to load the bases, Sam (single) and Ally (double) each had two RBI hits and the Cardinals were up 11-0. Waldwick broke up the shutout in the sixth with a run.

Defense has been the number one reason why this team has won five in a row; simply put, these girls make the plays in the field. Annaliese caught a fly ball to short-center in the first, then started a heads up fielder's choice to second on a ball hit to left-center. Jillian, Sam, Tina, Shannon, Kaitlyn K and Ally also contributed with nice defensive plays.

With their recent success, Westwood improved to 8-3-1 on the season, with Thursday night's continuation of the Wyckoff game all that is left on the regular season schedule (note: league counted that game as a tie for now; Wyckoff leads 26-24 going into the bottom of the seventh. The lights went out at that point when the game was originally played on June 27, Westwood will get its last licks... three-plus weeks later!) This final action could determine playoff seeding.

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