By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Staff
The 14U baseball team just finished an impressive tournament run last week, making it to the semifinals of the Eastern Massachusetts District Tournament.
After their quarterfinal win, Head Coach Ken Lee explained: “This is something that the town … has specifically said … the 14U’s haven’t played in this district tournament in about twenty years and that we’re the first team to have gotten as far as we’re going right now into the elimination round, so I’m proud of all these guys.”
The team hosted Norwood for the quarterfinals on July 8th. During pool play, Westwood was undefeated in their four games and beat Norwood in a tight game prior to their quarterfinal matchup. The game was originally scheduled for the 7th but was pushed back a day due to the rain.
Norwood was the first to score with one run in the first inning, but during Westwood’s turn at bat, Ryan Lee walked in Jack Shevory to tie.
The game remained tied until the bottom of fourth, when Trent Levesque ran in Dennis Ash, who had just slid into third during the previous play, and Ahmed Khan ran in on the next play for a score of 3–1.
The fifth inning was particularly exciting for Westwood: Shevory made it to first base due to an error by the first baseman before stealing second while Braden Briller was at bat. Briller made a very successful bunt, running in Shevory and getting himself to second. Now up 4–1, James Pallotta went up to bat and was walked. Norwood caught a pop fly by the next batter before calling a timeout. Harrison Gibbons was walked next, loading the bases.
Following Gibbons, Ash’s hit bounced up the middle of the field, but the Norwood player made a bad pass to the catcher, giving Briller an easy opportunity to cross the plate. Norwood’s pitcher moved to the plate as the catcher went to retrieve the ball and Pallotta came running in from third. Pallotta slid into home, beating the pass and earning a second point on the play.
With Ash on second and Gibbons on third, Khan hit a deep pop fly. Gibbons waited on third until the Norwood outfielder, facing the sun, dropped the ball before booking it to home plate for a 7–1 lead. Norwood’s pitcher got the next two outs with a strike out and a catch to end the fifth inning.
During the top of the sixth, the ball deflected off of pitcher Tyler Phillips, but Pallotta moved in to get it and made the pass to Gibbons at first for an out. Ash caught a pop fly in the outfield for the second and Lee made a good effort going after a foul ball on another play, but was unable to make the catch due to a fence. Shevory picked up a groundball and sent it to Gibbons at first to end the inning.
Norwood made quick work of the Wolverines in the bottom of the sixth, getting two pop flies and one strikeout with the first three batters.
During the top of the seventh, Shevory made two passes to Gibbons at first base for Norwood’s first two outs, between which they scored one run. Gibbons caught a pop fly to end the game with a 7–2 win.
Westwood advanced to the semifinals soon after, where they were defeated by Danvers, who was also undefeated during pool play, 7–2 on the 9th.
“These kids are all in eighth grade, they’ve played together since they were…preschool, kindergarten,” said Coach Lee, “so the motivation for me was really just to have some townsfolk out here because these kids, a lot of them are going to private schools, some of these kids, they’re gonna be playing baseball in—at the high school here, but freshman team, JV team, who knows where they’re gonna land.
“I will have to say, I have been up the past three or four nights because of the fact that—knowing that the rain was coming. All these kids are great, but I have four kids that are kind of on the highest level of club, so they have seen the highest level of what a fourteen-year-old will bring, and losing those kids I was despondent, and worried, about how these kids would be doing but I’ve never—I’ve been coaching in this town for about ten plus years in baseball, basketball, soccer, a variety of sports, and the resiliency of these kids is literally unmatched. You got kids at this age and you worry about their focus and stuff like that but they are—I couldn’t be prouder of these kids more, my son’s on the team, all of his friends are … I’m just a part of the puzzle to get them motivated, they are just doing everything I ask, and again, couldn’t be prouder of these kids more.”
Congratulations on a great run to James Pallotta, Jack Shevory, Daniel Barkley, Jackson Kelleher, Simon Reeves, Trent Levesque, Kenji French, Jack McMillin, Dennis Ash, Braden Briller, Christopher Cucchi, Connor Houghton, Ahmed Khan, Tyler Phillips, Ryan Lee, Harrison Gibbons, Andrew McGowan, and Declan Gaffney!
