Westfield baseball holds on to win final regular season home game against Central Fellowship Christian Academy 

PERRY — Madon Sanders drove in two runs and pitched five solid innings as the Westfield Hornets defeated the Central Fellowship Christian Academy Lancers 6-4. 

Westfield (12-13) came into this game looking for redemption after their most recent losses. Through good defensive play in the field with minimal errors and making adjustments at the plate, the Hornets were able to secure the victory. 

Central Fellowship Christian Academy (5-18) was looking to get any sort of consolation win for their season, but were not able to capitalize on their opponent’s mistakes. The Lancers did give the Hornets a scare in the sixth and seventh inning as their comeback bid failed. 

Westfield’s bats heated up in the third inning, starting with Win Hoots slapping a single to left field and stealing second base during the next at-bat. 

Brock Johnson drove Hoots across the plate to put the Hornets up 1-0. 

Grayson Waller slapped a single to left field and proceeded to steal second and third base during Neil O’Brien’s at-bat. O’Brien grounded out to shortstop, but drove in Waller to give Westfield a 2-0 lead. 

Will Canterbury launched a double deep to the right field wall, then was driven in by Sanders’ double to center field. 

Luke Davidson hit an RBI-double to the right field wall and put the Hornets up 4-0 at the bottom of the third inning. 

On the first pitch of the fifth inning, O’Brien launched a moonbeam double to the center field wall. 

In the next at-bat, Russ Hiley turned a single into a double on good baserunning, putting runners on second and third. 

With Sanders up to bat, O’Brien took advantage of a Lancer miscue and stole home to give the Hornets a 5-0 cushion. Hiley crossed the plate on a Sanders fly out to put the Hornets up 6-0. 

Matthew Albritton and Carter Welch, for the Lancers, stole home in the sixth inning to bring the score to 6-2.

During the sixth inning, the Hornets strung together a double-pickoff when O’Brien picked off Hayden Valigora attempting to steal second, then Waller fired home and Evan Fries was tagged out to end the inning. 

Central Fellowship made their comeback bid in the seventh inning as they scored two more runs, however, Mason Easom came in for the Hornets and struck out two of the last three batters to end the game. 

Westfield head coach Ryan Wetherington was proud of how the team battled through the innings.

“Tonight was a little bit tighter than what we wanted, however, I was proud of how they fought. It took a little bit of time for us to make an adjustment on their pitcher as he had us off balance there for a little while,” Wetherington said. “We finally made some adjustments in the third inning and were able to put some runs on the board. With it being the last regular season home game for a lot of our seniors, I did a couple of things that I probably wouldn’t have done in a normal regular game. However, I was happy to see some of them get in and get some opportunities to mix some things up.” 

“Masom Easom did really well coming in at the very end right there, shutting them down and stopping that threat right there at the end. Madon Sanders started the game great and did a great job with pitching today.” 

“Overall, I’m proud of our boys – we had some mental mistakes that we need to fix and get right with base running and in the field defensively before our next games,” He continued. “A physical error I can handle, but with the mental errors, we have to do a better job. Hopefully we can use this as momentum against Pinewood, and then Brookstone on Friday, before playoffs.”

The seniors on the team had a little fun during the bottom of the sixth inning. Reenacting a scene from the film “Major League”; Reid Black walked out to the pitcher’s mound for a pitching change and “Wild Thing” came on over the speakers. Black pointed to right field and Nick Free did his best Ricky Vaughn impersonation on his way to the mound to face the next three batters. 

UP NEXT 

Westfield traveled to the Pinewood Christian Patriots (15-5) in a non-region matchup on Tuesday, April 29. The Hornets close out the regular season at Brookstone Academy at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2.