The weekend got off to a rotten start for the Westwood American Legion Post 320 baseball team, but they regrouped from losses to Norwood and Canton with a pair of wins yesterday sweeping Walpole Post 104 8-7 and 13-10 at Xaverian Brothers High School.
After having a 7-1 lead disappear as Walpole rallied for six runs in the top of the fourth to tie the contest, Brian Morante made sure Post 320 would not fall into a three-game slide, as he ripped a 3-2 fastball from Tom Ryan over the fence in left with two outs in the bottom of the seventh for a walk-off win.
Westwood then opened a 13-3 lead behind two home runs from C.J. Parsons before holding off a late Walpole rally that saw Post 104 bring the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with no outs.
“It was a big win, we actually needed that win because we had a couple upsetting losses the past two games and were back at .500,” said Morante, who recently completed his freshman year at Curry. “It was nice to put up a couple W’s today.”
Westwood, which dropped a 3-1 decision to Norwood on Friday and allowed two in the last of the seventh on Saturday in a 9-8 loss to Canton, improved to 8-6 on the season, moving into second place with 16 pointsk.
“We had a tough loss Friday night (to Norwood) and a tough loss (Saturday to Canton) and it could have been real easy and lose two more and have four losses in a row, and that really could of about tanked us for the season,” said Westwood manager Dick Paster.
Walpole fell to 2-9 with the two losses and also had to take a forfeit loss on Friday to Dedham because of a scheduling mix-up.
The small dimensions at Xaverian were clearly a factor in the 38 runs on the afternoon as the two teams combined for eight home runs with Parsons leading the way with three. In addition to Morante’s walk-off homer to the first game, Post 320 also one from Connor Doonan while Walpole got a home run in the opener from Joe Cabral and Jon Kelley and Chris Ferro hit home runs in the nightcap.
Despite making his debut for Post 320 after not being used much by Westwood High, Matt Venti managed to be the winning pitcher in both contests, pitching the final two innings in relief of the opener before going the first five of the nightcap. In his Game 2 start he allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits with no walks and one strikeout.
In the second game with Walpole serving as the home team, Parsons opened the second with a home run to put Westwood in front 2-1 and Post 320 would add five more – all unearned – with Morante and Sementelli each adding two-run doubles and John Sheehan capping the inning with a single.
Walpole got a pair back in the third, but Westwood erupted once again in the fourth with Sheehan knocking in a pair on a single with the bases loaded and Parsons followed with a three-run missile to center off Mike Baryski that made it 12-3.
Parsons missed a third home run of the game by about five feet in the sixth, hitting the wall in left-center about two-thirds of the way up the fence and settled having to settle for an RBI single.
“When he is hitting them, he is really crushing them,” said Paster of Parsons, who had seven RBI on the day.
Ferro struck for a homer to open the Walpole sixth and Post 104 also put three two-out singles together to get a run on an Adams line drive to center.
Trailing 13-5 entering the seventh, Walpole put the first seven men aboard against Connor Doonan and Greg D’Agincourt on a double, four singles, a walk and an error.
A.J Rossi cut the deficit to 13-9, greeting D’Agincourt with a two-run double to left that David Milano got a bad read on off the bat.
Dave Conroy singled to center for another run, but with men at the corners, D’Agincourt fanned Jimmy Adams, Kelley and pinch hitter Ryan O’Coin to end the game..
In the opener, Westwood got six in the first against Tom Ryan, who settled down after that in a complete game effort, Sheehan had a two-run double, Parsons started his big afternoon with a two-run home run and Doonan hit a solo shot two batters later for a 6-1 lead after Cabral homered for Post 104 with two outs in the top half. Doonan added another RBI double in the third for a 7-1 lead.
Walpole tied the game in the fourth, getting six against Mike Zona, who went the first five innings. Rossi provided a two-run single as part of the rally.
The game stayed tied into the last of the seventh and Morante delivered Westwood the win, working a good at-bat against Ryan and hitting the hill beyond the fence in left on a 3-2 fastball.
(Keith Pearson is Staff Writer for the Daily News Transcript. He can be reached at (781) 433-8371 or kpearson@cnc.com.)
