By winning yesterday afternoon’s elimination game against fellow District 6 West foe Norfolk, the Westwood American Legion Post 320 baseball team managed to be one of the final two teams standing in Bracket A of the South Sectional tournament.
The problem was that they still had to figure out a way to piece together two wins against a South Attleboro squad that handled them on Monday. Post 312 showed no signs of letting up last night either, taking just seven innings to move on to the State Final Eight in Acushnet for the first time in three years with a 12-0 win.
After getting the final five outs to secure the win over Norfolk, John Sheehan was back on the mound about 45 minutes later looking to keep the South Attleboro bats at bay. Just as they had done against Matt Glennon two nights prior, Post 312 was as aggressive as they could be, hitting seemingly everything on the screws.
“They hit literally everything, in, out, up, down, changeup, curveball, fastball,” said Sheehan who finished 2-1 with a save in the postseason. “They just raked.”
Over the three games to claim a spot in the Final 8, South Attleboro outscored its opponents 31-1, winning a pair of games by the mercy rule. Westwood wraps up the season at 16-12 after not reaching .500 in each of the past two seasons.
“We wanted to beat Norfolk and be the last one’s standing, we knew this was going to be a real tall order to have to play a doubleheader and we went through all the pitching in the first game to get here,” said Westwood manager Dick Paster. “Then it was going to be a tall order to beat them, and then we were going to have to come back here tomorrow with the same crew, just more tired.
“I’m real happy for the program, we’ve had a couple of down years and it was nice to turn the corner a little bit, get into the playoffs and go deep into the sectionals. I’m very happy about the season, and we’ve got a lot of our players eligible to come back next year.”
South Attleboro jumped on Sheehan from the outset and never seemed to let up as all nine starters scored at least once. Leadoff batter Ryan Lee was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and knocked in just as many. Post 312 was aggressive when it came to which pitch to swing at, on the bases whether it was taking the extra base on a hit into a gap or stealing a bag, they simply continually forced the issue.
They grabbed three in the bottom of the first as each of the first four reached safely, three being solidly hit. South Attleboro (21-3-1) opened the second with back-to-back singles putting men at the corners and Lee delivered home Alex Witkus with a single to right to go on top 4-0.
Westwood’s best chance to score against Post 312 starter Paul Piatelli came in the third as they loaded the bases with one out after singles by Rob Johnson, Dave Milano and Brian Morante. Piatelli managed to get Jason Sementelli down on strikes with a fastball for the second out, but only after throwing 11 pitches in a strong at-bat in which Sementelli fouled off five pitches after starting 0-2. Piatelli kept Post 320 off the board by getting C.J. Parsons swinging at a high fastball.
Piatelli also keyed a two-run third, crushing a triple to center to plate Evan Dean. Piatelli scored on a Witkus hit but Post 312 lost head coach Clay Field to an ejection during the at-bat in a heated argument that culminated in contact with the home plate umpire.
South Attleboro added two more in the fourth and four in the fifth against Mike Zona and Greg D’Agincourt.
Westwood overcame deficits of 5-0 and 7-4 to bounce Norfolk Post 335 by scoring five times in a wild eighth inning that saw just two hits. Rob Johnson had one, a two-run double down the left field line that pulled Post 320 to within a run and knocked Norfolk starter Greg Davey from the mound.
Brandon Howard came on and intentionally walked Braunstein, who already had a pair of doubles but also represented the go-ahead run. The move appeared to pay off as T.J. Manning slowly grounded a ball to short, but Alec Palioca was unable to field it cleanly, leaving the bases loaded.
Milano walked, forcing in the tying run and Braunstein gave Westwood its first lead on a passed ball. Sementelli capped off the inning with a base hit to right for what proved to be a key insurance run.
Homer appeared to break the game open with a gap shot to left that scored two as it was initially ruled to have not been caught with outfielders Connor Richards and Joe Tornabene nearly colliding into each other, but after the umpires got together it was ruled a catch to keep the score 9-7.
Norfolk got an unearned run in the eighth with Tornabene ripping a shot to right-center, but having to stop at first, appearing to pull a muscle in the process and being forced out of the game. Sheehan then got out of the inning by getting Paul Everett on a called third strike that saw him ejected for throwing his helmet and bat.
(Keith Pearson is Staff Writer for the Daily News Transcript. He can be reached at (781) 433-8371 or kpearson@cnc.com.)
