Westfield baseball cruises in big win against Strong Rock Christian 

PERRY — Neil O’Brien launched a towering two-RBI triple to the center field wall, Mason Easom pitched five strong innings, and the Westfield Hornets soundly defeated the Strong Rock Christian Patriots 13-3 in a big region matchup. 

Westfield (10-11, 4-5 GIAA District 5-3A) built on the momentum gained from their win against Southland Academy as their bats stayed hot all night, extending innings and maximizing their baserunning. 

Strong Rock Christian (9-12, 1-3 District) got off to a hot start in the first inning as the Patriots sent eight batters to the plate and scored two runs. However, their offense slowly fizzled out once Easom established a rhythm. 

After Strong Rock went up 2-0 in the first inning, the Hornets answered and kept their foot on the gas for the rest of the game. 

Brock Johnson drove the first run in for the Hornets on an RBI triple to center field, cutting the lead to one. 

Waller had a sacrifice groundout that drove Johnson in, tying the game 2-2. 

Luke Davidson hit an RBI double to the left field wall, and just like that, the Hornets were in the lead 3-2. 

In the fourth inning, Andrew Reid, second baseman for Strong Rock Christian, hit a deep RBI triple that Win Hoots made a diving attempt to catch and missed, allowing the Patriots to climb back into the game for a moment. 

With two runners on base in the fifth inning, Easom slapped an RBI double to put the Hornets up 5-3. 

Madon Sanders worked through a pitching change and drove in another run for Westfield. 

A couple batters later, O’Brien stepped up to the plate and ripped his two-RBI triple to put the Hornets ahead 8-3. 

Davidson was brought in to relieve Easom at the top of the sixth and retired the Patriots 1-2-3.

In the bottom of the sixth, Westfield’s bats stayed hot and overwhelmed the Patriot defense. The Hornets sent all nine batters to the plate and drove in five runs to end the game. 

Key Play: Grayson Waller turned a 6-4-3 triple play in the second inning to shut down the Patriots attempt to score.

Westfield head coach Ryan Wetherington was elated with his teams’ effort and success on the night.

“We had a tough first inning, but we came back in the bottom of the inning, answered, and took the one run lead right there, which is big. We had great pitching and after that first inning, Masom settled down and started finding his zone, throwing a lot of strikes and was able to go five innings for us,” Wetherington said. “Luke then came in and did a great job closing down the game for us. Our hitting was great – we had really good situational hitting tonight – we had runners in scoring position, we were able to get the ground ball to the right side, able to get the deep fly ball for the sacrifice fly. When we start playing team baseball like that, we can be pretty freaking good.” 

“I was proud of our situational hitting. I was proud of our bats – we battled and had some guys go down 0-2 and get a hit by pitch; go down 2-2 and fight off a curve ball to get a bloop single. Things of that nature to extend innings and put pressure on defenses, and then good things happen. We have two games over at [Strong Rock Christian] on Thursday, and hopefully we can go and have another good show,” Wetherington added. 

UP NEXT 

Westfield will travel to Strong Rock Christian in a region doubleheader on Thursday, April 17. Game 1 is at 5:30 p.m. followed by Game 2 at 7:30 p.m.