The Westfield Starfires offense combined to reach base safely 25 times as five players posted multi-hit performances in an 11-4 win over the Nashua Silver Knights at Holman Stadium on Thursday, August 7.
Westfield improves to 16-41-2 on the season, while the Silver Knights drop to 23-35-0, having fallen in 16 of their last 17 games.
American International College’s Josh Frometa started the offense for the Starfires with a two-out double into the left-center gap, and came around to score on Northeastern University’s Anthony Ruggiero’s single to center field for a 1-0 lead before the home team picked its bats up.
The Starfires doubled the lead in the second. James McDermott of Assumption University battled back from 0-2 to single to center. Stonehill College Skyhawk-to-be Kacin Robinson then bounced back to the mound, but what looked like a tailor-made double play ball turned into a disaster as his future college teammate, Josh Florence, made an inaccurate throw to second, and both runners reached.
Two batters later, Keene State University’s Otis Follet smacked a single to right field on a line. The throw home arrived ahead of McDermott trying to score from second, but Nashua catcher Joey Current did not field it cleanly, and the run scored as a result.
Nashua rebounded from those runs, as well as a pair of third-inning errors, to tie the game by the fourth. The Silver Knights strung together three men reaching with a walk, single, and double to plate one in the third, though Southern Connecticut State’s Cody Heselton stranded Cole Patterson and Tommy Ahlers from there with back-to-back swinging strikeouts. In the fourth, Current made up for his miscue with a leadoff double, scoring with ease on a Jack Kidwell base hit.
The tie was broken nearly immediately. Second-year Starfire Ben Williams of Boston College led off the fifth with a walk. Two batters later, Frometa collected his 75th career Starfires hit with a single deep in the hole at short. Ruggiero then drove an 0-1 pitch to center, scoring Williams and putting men at the corners.
The Silver Knights made a pitching change, opting to send out FCBL All-Star Andrew Chenevert, but Northeastern’s Cooper Tarantino greeted him with a two-run single, giving the Starfires a 5-2 lead.
Westfield expanded the lead in the sixth. Williams wreaked havoc as he reached on a dribbler that just stayed inside the third-base foul line about 25 feet from home plate. He swiped second and then third before coming home on a deep fly ball by Columbia University’s Jimmy Chadwell.
Nashua threatened to undo it all in their half of the frame, loading the bases, but incoming Holy Cross rookie Aidan Gilbert slammed the door, fanning Chase Roberts with a fastball to leave the three men where they stood.
The Starfires added two more in the eighth, as Ruggiero and Tarantino put up back-to-back one-out singles. Two batters later, Robinson put bat to ball for one of his best hits of the season, finding the wall in left-center for a two-run double. Nashua did net one in the home half, but trailed 8-3 with three outs to go.
Westfield added insult to injury by scoring three times in the ninth without a hit; Williams, Chadwell, and Frometa all walked to load the bases, and Tarantino and McDermott both walked as well, driving in runs. Robinson added a third RBI painfully; after falling behind 0-2, he fouled off two pitches before absorbing one right between the numbers to push Frometa in. Once again, the Silver Knights scored once in the frame, but it hardly mattered as Frometa caught the final out on a fly ball in foul ground in left.
Ruggiero reached safely five times with three hits and two walks, driving in two and scoring two, earning Futures League Player of the Night status. Frometa posted three hits as well as a walk, scoring three times. Tarantino and Robinson each posted two hits and drove in three, reaching safely three times total apiece; McDermott reached four times with two hits and two walks, while Williams also reached three times and scored on all of them.
Heselton did not factor into the decision despite a strong showing by the Owl-to-be, as he fanned four against one walk and six hits. Gilbert grabbed the win with two shutout frames, putting away five of six via strikeout.
The team next returns home for Fan Appreciation Weekend and its final two games of 2025. On Friday, August 8, Boston Bruins Anthem singer Todd Angilly will sing the Star-Spangled Banner before the game. Boston Red Sox 2007 World Series Champion closer Jonathan Papelbon will take the mound at Bullens Field for the first pitch in a 6:30 p.m. start against the Silver Knights in an appearance presented by Sherwin Williams, Advance Manufacturing, and Peerless Precision.
