Westwood baseball concludes Cinderella run

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]

By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor

2017 has been the year of the Cinderella team in the MIAA State Baseball Tournament, with towns such as Dover-Sherborn (DIII) and Wellesley (DI) all making long runs and earning sectional crowns despite their low seeds. The Westwood Wolverines (14-9) were no different, especially after earning the No. 11 seed in Division II South. The Wolverines won three straight games away from WHS throughout the past two weeks at No. 6 Nauset (10-5), Sandwich (7-0) at Medfield High, and at Oliver Ames (10-6).

Last Sunday, the incredible Cinderella run by this rugged and resilient group of Wolverines came to a tough end in the form of a 5-3 loss to No. 5 Greater New Bedford (14-6) at Braintree High School, concluding an extremely successful 2017 season.

The Wolverines fell behind 2-0 after the first inning against Nauset, but put together eight runs over the course of the next three innings, with two of the eight being knocked in by senior Brian Guarino (two RBI single). Thomas Keith cracked an RBI sac-fly, and Nick Bernardo came home after sophomore Ryan Shea drew a walk with the bases loaded in the top of the second.

Thomas Bean doubled with two outs in the fifth, and was driven home by Brian Guarino on an error by Nauset at first base. Senior Anthony Fabiano then drove in Guarino with a single to center to make it 10-2. Nauset would score one in the home half of the fifth and two in the sixth to cut it to a 10-5 game, but the Wolverines were able to shut the door in the seventh and advance with a 10-5 victory.

Tall lefty Ben Shields got the start for the Wolverines in their quarterfinal round game against Sandwich, and delivered a clutch shutout performance to guide Westwood to a 7-0 win, advancing the Wolverines to the South semifinals. Aidan Fitzgibbon gave the Wolverines a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI single to center that plated Anthony Fabiano. Thomas Keith extended the Westwood lead to 2-0 with an RBI groundout that plated Mark Bernardo in the bottom of the fourth. Noah Henderson drove in Fitzgibbon on a ground ball to second and Bernardo plated Jacob Nguyen on an RBI single to extend the Westwood lead to 4-0. After Henderson swiped second, Bean would rope a single to plate Henderson, extending the lead to 5-0 after five innings. The Wolverines would add two more runs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI groundout by Shields and an RBI single by Keith, and closed the door on Sandwich in the top of the seventh with a 1-2-3 inning to earn the 7-0 victory.

The Wolverines jumped all over Oliver Ames in the South semifinals, plating seven runs in the first four innings, highlighted by an inside-the-park home run by Henderson to make it 7-1 entering the bottom of the fourth. OA cut it to a 7-5 game with a fifth inning rally, but the Wolverines would add two in the top of the sixth and one in the top of the seventh to make it a 10-5 game. The Tigers cut it to a four-run game in the bottom of the seventh, but the Wolverines were able to strand a pair of OA runners and pull out the 10-6 win to advance to the South Finals.

Henderson gave Westwood a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the South finals against New Bedford with an RBI single that plated Fitzgibbon after he was hit by a pitch. GNB evened the game one in the bottom of the fourth but Bernardo gave Westwood back the lead at 3-1 with a two-RBI single that plated both Fabiano and Fitzgibbon in the top of the fourth. Greater New Bedford answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, followed by two more in the bottom of the sixth. The Wolverines were unable to keep their postseason magic going in the seventh, as Greater New Bedford retired the Wolverines in order and took home the South Sectional title.