By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Westwood’s matchup against Medfield on Wednesday was one for the record books. Pitcher Bridget Mulkeen recorded her 700th career strikeout en route to a no-hitter. The Holy Cross commit led Westwood to a 6-0 win over Medfield.
Mulkeen made quick work of the Warriors in just about every inning. She took a perfect game into the fifth inning; the same inning her only blunders of the game came in. The ace allowed back-to-back walks to the first two hitters, with a groundout advancing them both into scoring position. Unfazed, she recorded consecutive strikeouts – two of thirteen in the game – to get out of the jam.
The sixth and seventh innings were clean, as Mulkeen allowed no base runners to finish out her tremendous performance.
“We work really hard,” said Mulkeen. “I like to pitch a lot and my teammates are always really supportive, which makes every game super fun. [I am] super excited to hit 700 strikeouts… I was throwing a lot of dropball, which typically is my go to pitch. [Izzy Walsh] did a great job of framing and calling pitches today, and she definitely got me some extra strikes.”
“You don't really have to do much [when Mulkeen is pitching]; we could just go to the store and just sit there,” added head coach Tom Grandy jokingly. “Bridget is a once-in-a-lifetime player. She works hard and she had a great game today.”
Mulkeen had a great backing from teammates at the plate, as well. The Wolverines totaled nine hits throughout the game and tallied three runs in each of the second and fourth inning. The latter inning of scoring started off with senior Sasha Marinor ripping a double to center field and eventually scoring.
Junior Mia Poles took advantage of poor fielding as she reached on an error and made her way around the bases on more mistakes from Medfield. Mulkeen drew a walk and was subbed out for freshman Katherine Granata as a pinch runner, who eventually scored by way of more errors from Medfield to cap off the six runs.
“We were pretty aggressive,” said Mulkeen on the offense’s offensive execution. “We swung a lot on the first pitch and got a lot of hits up the middle… We typically split the series with them, but this is our only chance at playing them this year, so I'm glad we got the win.”
After improving to 8-3 with the win against Medfield and another versus Ashland, the Wolverines are in firm grasp of a playoff spot. One more win will solidify a spot in the playoffs for Westwood.
