Northeastern’s Anthony Ruggiero hit a grand slam as part of his three-hit, five RBI day, Virginia’s Griffin Enis went yard for the first time, and the Westfield Starfires proved that their offensive performance yesterday against the Nashua Silver Knights was no fluke, putting up a baker’s dozen against the FCBL’s best team in a 13-3 victory over the Worcester Bravehearts, Sunday, July 13 at Fitton Field.
The Starfires end Week 7 with back-to-back victories to get to 11-28-2 on the season. The Bravehearts lose their seven-game win streak but still hold a 29-11-0 record and a comfortable 5-game lead for first place in the FCBL, although they have had trouble with the Starfires at Fitton Field, losing three of five to Westfield in their home ballpark.
The first two frames were scoreless, but the Starfires changed that with a big third inning. The Bravehearts got two quick outs, but then Westfield got a single from Boston College’s John Mass, a walk by Northwestern’s Griffin Mills, and then an infield grounder by Enis was hit just in the right spot for an infield hit.
With the bases loaded, the Starfires and Keene State’s Jonathan Chatfield did what they are best known for: drawing walks. Chatfield worked a five-pitch free pass, and the Starfires plated the game’s first run.
Then, with one swing of the bat, Northeastern product Anthony Ruggiero fired up the Westfield dugout, launching a home run over the wall in right-center for a grand slam, and the Starfires had all the momentum, up by five runs after the top of the third.
The Bravehearts fell apart even more in the fourth inning, with the Starfires making the league leaders pay for their command issues. The inning consisted of two hit-by-pitches, two walks, two wild pitches, and three singles.
Connecticut’s Evan Menzel drove in two with a base hit, then the two Northeastern players, Ruggiero and Tarantino, each drove home one, with Tarantino getting drilled with the bags full, and Ruggiero getting an RBI single for his fifth run driven in on the day. With the four-spot, the Starfires were leading 9-0 after three-and-a-half.
The lead swelled even more in the fifth after a single by Menzel and a walk from Mills, set up a plate appearance for Enis, who clubbed the Starfires’ fifth home run in the past two games and after a trio scored on the long ball, the Starfires were decimating the Bravehearts 12-0.
Pitching on the mound to start for Westfield was UMass-Lowell Riverhawk Nolan Geisler. The Bayonne, New Jersey native was stellar, turning in four innings of work with four hits, and never allowing more than one baserunner in any of his four innings.
Keene State’s Nathan Pirog followed Geisler up by spinning a scoreless fifth, but the Bravhearts scored their first runs in the sixth.
A double, a single, an RBI groundout, then a run-scoring single game Worcester a pair of runs, but the hosts still faced a 10-run deficit.
In the seventh, with the Bravehearts needing a run to stay alive, the Starfires failed to end the game prematurely as Worcester scored its third run off a two-out single with a runner on second, and the contest continued into the eighth.
Mills extended his hitting streak with a leadoff triple in the eighth and then later came around to score after Kansas State’s Jack Quetschenbach hit a single.
Westfield had the opportunity to end the game early once again in the home half of the eighth with their 13-3 lead, and this time they held the Bravehearts off the board. Worcester got into business early in their at-bats with a one-out single followed by a walk, but Columbia’s Justin Bowman got two consecutive flyballs to left field to end the game with the Starfires leading by 10 after eight.
Ruggiero ended the day 3-for-4 with five runs driven in. Mass also tallied three base knocks and scored twice. Both Menzel and Enis finished with two hits, two runs, and two and three RBIs, respectively.
Every spot in the order reached base at least once for Westfield, and the 13 runs are the second most this season, right behind a 15-5 win over the Norwich Sea Unicorns in their second game of the season.
One day after American International College product Josh Frometa reached his 100th game for the Starfires, manager Paul Bonfiglio completed his 100th game as the Starfires bench boss with the win.
The Starfires will have an off-day tomorrow, and then begin Week 8 with a feature game at Dunkin Park, home of the Colorado Rockies Double-A affiliate Hartford Yard Goats, in Hartford, Connecticut, against the Vermont Lake Monsters at 11:00 a.m.
