Westwood 10, Needham 6: Cooling system

Starting slow and picking up steam over the course of the season has been the m.o. for the Needham American Legion Post 14 baseball team for the past few years and this year has been no different starting out losing eight of their first 10 games only to win their last three.

Behind a strong start from Dave Jablonski, who regrouped nicely after a shaky first inning, a 10-hit attack and plating four of its five batters being hit by pitches, Westwood cooled off Post 14 with a 10-6 win at Xaverian Brothers High School.

Westwood held on to its spot in second place with a third straight win of its own at 9-6, four points behind front-runners Norwood while Needham falls to 5-9, four points behind Foxboro for the fifth and final postseason spot, though Foxboro does have five games in hand.

“Where they swept Dedham (Sunday), you knew they were going to come down ready to play and of course they get a three-run home run in the first inning so we’re playing catch-up,” said Westwood manager Dick Paster. “We responded and Jablonski settled down after the first inning and pitched well the rest of the way, good enough to keep us in the game and once we had the lead we were going to bring (John) Sheehan in to close it out.”

Trailing 6-4 entering the last of the fourth, Post 320 took advantage of a bout of wildness from Needham reliever Tom Fitzgerald. He hit C.J. Parsons and walked Greg Homer to start the inning and Connor Doonan followed with a single to center loading the bases.

Cory Braunstein lifted a sacrifice fly to left-center with the tagging Parsons arriving at the plate just as the throw got to reserve catcher Mike Libertini – filling in for an injured Joe Herer. Libertini was unable to hang on to and Westwood was within a run at 6-5.

Bryan Ginsberg reloaded the bases by getting hit on the left elbow, forcing him to leave the game at the start of the fifth inning, but T.J. Manning (3-for-4) stepped up and laced an opposite field single to right to plate a pair, giving Westwood a 7-6 advantage.

“I’m probably going to jinx him, but (Manning) does a great job out there,” said Paster of his second baseman, who moved over to shortstop when Ginsberg departed. “He can play anywhere you want him and does a nice job, but everybody played well today and I was very pleased with the effort.”

Given a lead to work with for the first time on the night, Jablonski worked around a one-out single in fifth by stranding the runner at third and working a perfect sixth that included center fielder Cory Braunstein making a tremendous leaping grab while crashing into the fence in left-center to take extra bases away from Sam August.

“That kid kept us off, we didn’t know where he was going,” said Needham manager John Gallello of Jablonski who went allowed eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

Westwood built a bit of breathing room in their half of the sixth, once again starting a rally with a batter getting plunked by a pitch as Braunstein took one for the team and Matt Venti sacrificed him over to second.

Manning put men at the corners with a single back through the box and Brian Morante, who had been scuffling a bit before Sunday’s doubleheader sweep of Walpole that included a walk-off home run in the opener, crushed a 1-1 pitch over the heart of the plate for a three-run homer that landed atop the practice field well beyond the fence in left for a 10-6 lead.

Morante’s blast countered Libertini’s three-run home run that put Needham on top 3-0 in the first inning.

Jason Sementelli pulled a run back for Westwood in the home half, narrowly beating out one of a few controversial calls on the night on a slow chop to short that scored Manning.

Needham pushed the lead back to three immediately with a two-out single by Nick Shaheen (3-for-4) that scored Mike Green.

Parsons and Doonan were each hit by pitches to put two on with one out and Braunstein lined an RBI double down the line in left. Ginsberg followed with a single up the middle, with Doonan scoring easily from third and Braunstein coming home to tie the game at 4-all as the ball was bobbled in center, which also led to Ginsberg being thrown out at second trying to take the extra base.

Needham moved back in front in the fourth on back-to-back one-out triples to right by August and Mike Gustin and Green (2-for-3) delivering the second run of the inning with a base hit.

(Keith Pearson is Staff Writer for the Daily News Transcript. He can be reached at (781) 433-8371 or kpearson@cnc.com.)