Virginia Cavalier Griffin Enis proved to the Norwich Sea Unicorns why he was the 2025 FCBL Home Run Derby Champion as he bested Bryce Detwiler in the home run derby for a Starfires win on Sunday, August 3, after the teams were tied 4-4 after 10 innings at Bullens Field.
The Starfires earned their first home run derby victory of the regular season, and rattle off two straight wins to conclude the week with a 15-38-2 record. Norwich, meanwhile, has lost six straight, but are still in third place in the FCBL standings with a 26-30-1 record.
After Brendan Murphy retired the first three batters he faced, the Starfires gave their hurler a lead to work with.
Iona’s Cole Silvia smacked the first pitch he saw for a single, which was his seventh hit in his past three games. The Starfires right fielder then stole second and reached third after a balk. Northeastern’s Anthony Ruggiero then hit a grounder to short that not only gave him his team-leading 29th RBI on the year, but also allowed him reached off an errant throw to first base, with the play giving Westfield a 1-0 lead.
Norwich was held scoreless through the first three innings, but in the fourth, the visitors were able to string some hits together with three straight singles to score their first run, then got an RBI groundout followed by a run-scoring double to plate two more runs, as the Sea Unicorns took a 3-1 advantage.
The Starfires got a run back in the bottom of the fourth. After Assumption’s James McDermott was drilled, then Northeastern Husky Cooper Tarantino launched a double off the top of the fence in left-center that scored McDermott for the second run of the game for Westfield.
Two innings later, McDermott got aboard with a double and Columbia’s Jimmy Chadwell cracked what was then the game-tying double to score McDermott as the Starfires and Sea Unicorns headed into the seventh knotted at 3.
A new face made his way to the mound in the eighth inning for Westfield, the soon-to-be Holy Cross Crusader Aidan Gilbert. His first collegiate-level appearance began shaky by hitting a batter and then walking the next. However, the Willington, Connecticut native snagged a comebacker to the mound, threw over to third to get the out there, then Chadwell fired the ball to first to complete an unorthodox 1-5-3 double play. Gilbert then induced a grounder to second for the final out of the inning to toss a scoreless frame to keep it tied at 3.
In the remaining three half innings of regulation, the Starfires left two men on in the top of the eighth, losing the opportunity to cash in off singles from McDermott and Tarantino. In the top of the ninth, Norwich got their leadoff runner on with a walk, but a double play helped Gilbert face the minimum in his second inning of work.
In the bottom of the ninth, Ruggiero singled and the new franchise hits leader Josh Frometa was drilled, but the Starfires once again stranded the two runners which sent the game into the 10th inning.
The Sea Unicorns got their ghost runner home in the tenth after a pair of ground balls and put the pressure on the Starfires up 4-3 into the bottom of the tenth.
Chadwell immediately moved McDermott up 90 feet with a sacrifice bunt, then Tarantino drove him home with a deep sacrifice fly to tie the game at four and the game headed into the home run derby.
The rematch came to life as FCBL Home Run Derby participant Bryce Detwiler was the elected hitter for the Sea Unicorns, but came up empty in his 10 attempts.
Even better than a home run derby participant is a Home Run Derby winner; Enis, the Mississippi native and future Virginia Cavalier, got off to a rough start, recording four outs with none of his hits particularly close to leaving the ballpark, but one home run was all he needed, and the very next pitch he sent over the wall, high off of a pine tree in left-center for a home run and a 5-4 Starfires win.
The in-game derby win for the Starfires was the first for the team since the 2022 season opener; after ten innings saw the team play to a 6-6 tie with the Vermont Lake Monsters on May 26, 2022, future Toronto Blue Jays draft pick Jackson Hornung launched a pair of home runs to win the contest in the derby.
Both the Starfires catchers who played, Tarantino and McDermott, the latter being the designated hitter on the day, were 2-for-4 in the contest. McDermott scored three of the four runs for Westfield while Tarantino had a pair of RBIs and has a base hit in each of his past three games for the Starfires.
Ruggiero was 2-for-5 with a run-scoring groundout while Frometa recorded his 50th career walk in the first inning.
The Westfield bullpen was lights out for the second day in a row. Southern Connecticut State’s Cody Heselton, Herkimer Community College’s Caleb Martinek, Gilbert, and Keene State’s Dylan Ellison tossed six innings with no earned runs and six hits. Combined across the past two games, Starfires relievers have not allowed an earned run in 10 straight innings.
The Starfires have just five games remaining on the season, the next of which will be played at Fitton Field against the Worcester Bravehearts on Tuesday, August 5 at 6:30 p.m.
