With the final days of July approaching and the nights continuing to increase in length, the Westfield Starfires have just two weeks and 11 games of the FCBL regular season remaining on the docket.
The two top teams have been a dominant force in the league, so much so, in fact that up until a couple of days ago, four of the six teams in the league had a sub .500 record. The Worcester Bravehearts are leading the way with a 36-15-0 record, with the Vermont Lake Monsters 3.5 games behind with a 32-18-0 mark.
The middle of the pack contains the 2024 champions, the Norwich Sea Unicorns in third place with a 26-24-0 record, then in the final playoff spot are New Britain Bees at 23-28-0.
Rounding out the standings are the Nashua Silver Knights, one game out of a playoff spot at 22-29-0, then finally the Starfires with a 13-36-2 record.
Offensively, the Starfires are middle of the pack offensively in most categories, but Westfield has been leading the league in walks for more or less the entirety of the season. The Starfires have drawn 237 bases on balls this season for a mark of nearly five per game.
In addition to the free passes, the Starfires have begun to rack up the home runs with three in their past four games, getting the team total up to 19 on the year, which is good for third in the league. The Starfires are also tied with New Britain for 12 triples on the season.
At the top of the pack is Northeastern product, Anthony Ruggiero. The Mendon, Massachusetts native is bound to be an All-League caliber player should he keep this pace up, as he has slashed .302 on the season with six home runs and 28 runs batted in, both of which are third in the FCBL. The lefty has been hot lately, with multi-hit efforts in five of his past eight games with three long balls and 11 RBIs in that span.
Northwestern’s Griffin Mills has come a long way since beginning the season 1-for-25, and is tied with Ruggiero with six home runs while the New Jersey native is also near the league lead with 24 runs driven in.
Evan Menzel, a rising sophomore at the University of Connecticut, has been a mainstay in the starting lineup all season, with the shortstop currently on a nine-game hit streak for a .287 batting average. The Coventry, Connecticut native is an on-base machine, with his league-high 30 walks on the year, and his .424 OBP is fourth in the FCBL.
Two potential milestones to be on the lookout for are well within reach for third-year Starfire Josh Frometa. With his four-hit performance in a win against Nashua on Saturday, July 26, he tied a franchise record in hits with 70 since donning a Starfires uniform. In his past nine games, the American International product is 11-for-30 with a couple of four-hit games sprinkled in. One more base hit for Frometa, and he would pass Danny Crossen for the franchise record. He also sits at 44 runs batted in, leaving him needing to drive in one to tie Jackson Hornung for the franchise record of 45 and two to set a new high-water mark.
Week 9 featured a couple of blowout wins for the Starfires, including an 8-1 performance against the New Britain Bees at Bullens Field on Friday, July 25. The Wheaton College product, Greg Strite, got the win in this game with five innings of one-run ball. Strite has been a solid addition to Westfield’s starting rotation, never allowing more than one run in any of his past three starts. He is the team leader with three wins and holds a 3.72 ERA heading into the final couple of weeks of the season.
In the same game, one of the many Columbia players on the team, Justin Bowman, had what was likely the most dominant bullpen appearance for Westfield on the season. The Suwanee, Georgia native tossed three innings, fanning six batters and allowing just a single walk as his only baserunner.
In the other win of the week, a 14-7 victory over Nashua on Saturday, July 26, another Columbia pitcher, Brendan Murphy, was the winning pitcher, battling through five innings, surrendering three runs for his first win on the season.
Looking ahead to the penultimate week of the regular season, the Starfires will begin with a home matchup against the Nashua Silver Knights on Tuesday, July 29.
A couple weeks ago, the Silver Knights were firmly in third place in the Futures League, but they have been in a complete free fall by losing 10 straight games and have lost control of the playoff spot heading into the final two weeks with their 22-29-0 record. They have scored two or fewer runs in six of those games, although they did manage seven runs in their last matchup against the Starfires.
With the fall off offensively, the Silver Knights are now second last in the league with runs scored per game, and the .343 OBP is second worst in the league as well. Pitching-wise, however, they remain one of the top teams in the league with their second-lowest team ERA while they also have registered the second-most strikeouts in the league with 429 and have walked the second-fewest at 198.
Patrick Shrake is hitting a league high .366 for the Silver Knights, while Jake Haarde has a team high 22 RBIs. On the bump, Andrew Chenevert has a 5-2 record in seven starts, although he has lost his last two outings.
Next for the Starfires will be a two-game series against the Bees, with the two clubs clashing at New Britain on Wednesday, July 30, then heading up to Bullens Field for a game on Thursday, July 31.
The Starfires have won two of their past three against the Bees, who are clinging to that final playoff spot by one game with their 23-28-0 record.
Offense has been hard to come by at times for the Bees this entire season as they are dead last in team average with a .229 mark and a .616 OPS. They are not exceptional at making contact with a high strikeout rate and have very few extra base hits. Pitching staff is middle of the pack, but they do commit the fewest errors in the league.
The best bat for New Britain is Brennan Staubley, with the All-Star boasting a .310 batting average and multi-hit games in six of his past ten.
Flipping the calendar to August, Westfield will have a home matchup against the Bravehearts to begin the month on Friday, August 1. This game will be Hometown Heroes Night, where the Starfires will honor local first responders in the greater Westfield Area.
Despite the Starfires’ success at Fitton Field thus far, they have yet to beat the Bravehearts at home.
Worcester has a 36-15-0 mark heading into Week 10 and has distanced itself from the Lake Monsters by 3.5 games after two straight wins over Vermont.
The statistics will make one realize why the Bravehearts have won over 70 per cent of their games this year. They have hit more home runs than any other team and are batting a whopping .282 as a club. The OPS is also by far the highest in the league, and that has led to the Bravehearts averaging 6.7 runs per game. The strikeout rate is moderate, and they have 146 stolen bases as a team, which is over 40 more than any other team in the league.
The pitching is also the best in the league with a 4.18 ERA, and they have the most strikeouts and allow the fewest walks of all six teams as well.
Jackson Marshall has been in the spotlight for the Bravehearts with his eight home runs and 40 RBIs on the season, both of which are second in the league. Kaleb Woodward has also been a big part of the team’s success with a .310 average and only one of two players in the league with at least 20 stolen bases.
After the matchup against the Bravehearts, the Starfires will head to New Hampshire against the Nashua Silver Knights on Saturday, August 2.
The final game of the week will be played at Bullens Field against the Norwich Sea Unicorns on Sunday, August 3.
Over the past week and a half, nobody has played better than the Sea Unicorns. After the defending champions were under .500 for the majority of the season and in danger of missing the playoffs, they have righted the ship to get to 26-24-0 on the season and have won six in a row, including a doubleheader sweep over Westfield in their most recent two games.
The hitting, which has been one of the worst in the league for most of the season, has greatly improved to around league average in most categories. The pitching has also been much better, allowing just 14 runs in their six-game winning streak.
Perhaps the biggest weakness for Norwich is the extra outs they tend to give up. Norwich is the worst fielding team in the Futures League by averaging nearly two errors per game. In their recent doubleheader versus Westfield, they gave the Starfires a couple of gifts with four errors in two seven-inning games.
The best player for Norwich is starting pitcher Matt Wootton. He is the FCBL’s leader in innings pitched with 46 and is second in the league with his 2.54 ERA and 42 punchouts. His pristine accuracy separates him from the rest of the league, with only five walks in eight starts.
To recap, the Starfires will have four games at Bullens Field in the upcoming week, Tuesday, July 29 against the Silver Knights, Thursday, July 31 versus the Bees, Friday, August 1, hosting the Bravehearts which is also Hometown Heroes Night, and finally Sunday, August 3, in a rematch of the 2024 FCBL championship against the Sea Unicorns.
Tickets to all these games, as well as any other Starfires home games can be purchased at www.westfieldstarfires.com