Westfield baseball staves off Southland Academy comeback for the win

PERRY — Looking for a tune-up before a big district matchup, the Westfield Hornets found themselves on the defense against the Southland Academy Raiders as they held on to win the game 7-5.

Westfield (5-6) put together a string of scores in the fourth inning, culminating with a two-RBI triple to the centerfield wall by Neil O’Brien that gave the Hornets a 5-1 lead.

“I thought we hit the ball pretty well. The first pitcher had us out on our front side a little bit and then we made some adjustments and we were able to make better contact,” said Westfield coach Ryan Wetherington. “When [Southland] brought out their second pitcher, we made some adjustments a little bit faster, which was nice to see the team do. I like how we finished the game out and hopefully we can keep it rolling the rest of the week.”

“I tell our guys all the time, ‘let’s make our opponents earn everything they get, so we have to cut down anything free, and make them earn everything. If you do that, you have a really good shot at being successful.’”

Southland Academy (1-8) did not bend over so easily as they battled back against the Hornets until the final out. The Raiders put runners in scoring position frequently, but could not generate any momentum.
Brock Johnson got the scoring started quick and early in the bottom of the first inning as he stole second and home enroute to a 1-0 lead for Westfield.

In the second inning, the Hornets had a baserunning double-play blunder.

Michael Easom stole second and was ruled safe. In an effort to create more confusion, Mason Easom attempted to steal home and was promptly thrown out. The Raiders’ catcher then fired back to second where Michael Easom was tagged out to end the inning.

Johnson grounded to shortstop and beat the throw to first, putting the Hornets on base to start the fourth inning. Grayson Waller slapped an RBI single to the outfield as Johnson advanced from second base to home.

Waller made his way around the bases and stole home on a wild pitch, giving Westfield a 3-1 lead. Mason Easom and Luke Davidson hit back-to-back singles in between shortstop and third base, which put runners at the corners.

O’Brien closed out the inning with his two-RBI triple, driving in both runners.
In the fifth inning, Waller hit a ground-rule double that bounced over the left centerfield fence, driving in Win Hoots to put the Hornets up 6-3.

Hoots came through with the final Westfield score as he drove in Madon Sanders, who walked earlier, to put the Hornets up 7-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Johnson had a solid night on the diamond, where he went 2-for-4 with three stolen bases and two runs.
Southland Academy started their comeback bid in the fifth inning when they loaded the bases and drove two runs across the plate. In the consecutive innings to follow, the Raiders were able to score one run apiece, but it was not enough to prevail.

Westfield rotated through six pitchers during the game, who combined for 9 strikeouts and 4 walks over the course of seven innings. At the top of the seventh inning, Sanders closed out the game as he struck out three out of four Raiders sent to the plate.

Wetherington was pleased with the way the team executed the game plan.

“We had a solid game plan going into today. We have a pretty big region matchup coming up tomorrow and Friday, so we were using it as a way to get our pitchers some innings today,” Wetherington said. “We changed pitchers every inning except for that last inning. It’s hard for a pitcher to get momentum and be consistent with strikes when you’re changing everything in that manner. I thought we did a decent job with what our guys were doing there.”

UP NEXT

Westfield will host the St. Anne-Pacelli Vikings (7-9) in a district matchup on Wednesday, March 26 at 6:00 p.m.