One would be hard pressed to come up with a possible better scenario than what played out at Peter Wall Field yesterday afternoon for the Westwood American Legion Post 320 baseball team in its South Sectional Bracket A opener.
Everyone in the order contributed as Post 320 slammed out 19 hits, John Sheehan overpowered the Hingham lineup and the 16-3 pasting of Post 120 meant Westwood could avoid playing two more innings out under the sun because of the mercy rule.
Post 320 advances into the winner’s bracket and will send Matt Glennon to the mound to take on South Attleboro Post 312, which blanked Norfolk 12-0 in seven innings in the other Bracket A opening round game.
“It’s enormous,” said Westwood manager Dick Paster of opening a double elimination tournament with a win, “it’s awfully tough coming out of a loser’s bracket so its really important to get into the winner’s bracket.”
The move at the start of the postseason by Post 320 manager Dick Paster of taking shortstop Bryan Ginsberg out of the leadoff spot and sliding him down in the lineup to the seventh spot and installing T.J. Manning at the top continues to pay off.
Ginsberg, who was 2-for-5 and was on base three times with two runs scored and essentially sealed the win with a three-run homer about halfway up the net in left to cap a seven-run fifth for a 13-2 lead. Manning continued his torrid stretch at the plate going 2-for-5 while scoring three times and knocking in a pair.
“Two years ago when he was on the team I batted him leadoff and he was the only leadoff hitter on the team,” said Paster of the Trinity-bound shortstop. “He was as close to that as we had and I batted him leadoff a lot this year, but he’s really not a leadoff hitter.
“T.J. Manning does a better job there, but with him hitting lower in the order there’s not as much pressure for him to get on and he tends to hit the ball better and he’s given us some power out of that No. 7 spot.”
The hits came from all parts of the order as everyone had at least one with Dave Milano, Jason Sementelli and Greg Homer leading the way with three each. Everyone also crossed the plate at least once while seven of the nine in the lineup knocked in a run, including three RBI each from Homer and Ginsberg.
Westwood (15-10) did manage to dodge a bullet in the first after wasting a chance of tis own in the top of the inning, leaving the bases loaded. Hingham had leadoff man Jake McGuiggan on third with one out after a single, stolen base and a groundout to the right side. But Matt Henriksen fanned on a high fastball and K.C. Murphy bounced back to the mound, allowing Sheehan to escape without any damage.
Sheehan yielded just four hits on the afternoon and walked a pair while striking out nine despite battling difficulties in locating his pitches that often left him talking to himself out on the mound. Despite fighting himself all afternoon, the William & Mary-bound right-hander was never in serious trouble as Hingham failed to multiple men on base in any inning.
“At the beginning he was getting down on himself, which is something I haven’t seen him do all year,” said Homer. “He’s a little emotional and it shows a little bit, but he definitely caught his composure there at the end.”
The day was one to forget for Hingham starter Eric MacIver, who was roughed up throughout the contest, but the seven-run fifth seemed to especially take its toll. He was finally lifted after facing two batters in the sixth and being tagged for 17 hits with all 15 runs against him being earned.
Getting some run support also proved beneficial for Sheehan as Westwood put together six hits in the second to score six times to seize command. Ginsberg and Rob Johnson (2-for-5, 2 runs) opened the second with back-to-back singles and Manning brought home Ginsberg with a bloop one-out double to right and a wild pitch plated Johnson.
With two outs, a base hit through the left side by Brian Morante made it 3-0 and C.J. Parsons added two more following a walk to Jason Sementelli by crushing a double to right. Homer capped the inning with a single through the right side of the infield.
Left fielder P.J. Falvey was the lone bright spot for Post 120, hitting a pair of home runs to right to account for all of Hingham’s offense against Sheehan, a two-run blast in the second to pull within 6-2 and then solo shot in the fifth.
The bottom of the Westwood order started the fifth as Johnson blooped a double into right that eluded the dive of Andrew Pompeo and Cory Braunstein quickly brought him home with a hard-hit single to left-center. A single by Milano and walk to Morante loaded the bases, Sementelli singled one home and then Homer knocked in two more with a single up the middle before Ginsberg smacked a three-run home run.
“I think when everyone starts hitting its kind of contagious and other people keep doing it,” said Homer who also scored the final run of the game after opening the seventh with a double. “We did good today and I think we’ve been getting a lot better as the playoffs have been going on and hopefully we can keep doing it.”
(Keith Pearson is Staff Writer for the Daily News Transcript. He can be reached at (781) 433-8371 or kpearson@cnc.com.)
