From Bark in the Park, Taco Tuesday, and a Star Wars-themed night, there was plenty of action in Bullens Field for the final week of June and the first week of the summer season as the Westfield Starfires wrap up their first complete month of the FCBL season.
The Starfires’ offense has continued to rack up the walks, now at 142 across 28 games played this season. The .368 team on-base percentage is also second in the league, as are the 68 stolen bases.
Shortstop Evan Menzel continues to lead to way for the Starfires. The incoming transfer to the University of Connecticut has logged a .304 batting average thus far and a .471 OBP thanks to his league-leading 22 walks drawn.
The biggest run producer on the squad has been Jonathan Chatfield. The Keene State product has been near the league lead in RBIs for the entire season thus far, now with 15, which is in a tie for fourth in the league in addition to his two long balls. The Naugatuck, Connecticut native has registered a hit in seven of his past eight games to get his season average up to .294. His 17 walks are right behind Menzel for second in the FCBL.
A couple of other big bats have just emerged this week. John Mass, the rising sophomore at Boston College, has started in each of the past six games and is 12-for-28 in that span, with his biggest performance coming in the Starfires’ 8-6 win at Worcester where the Portsmouth, Rhode Island native had three hits, including two doubles and two runs scored. The second baseman has raised his batting average from .233 to .328 in the past week.
Northwestern’s Griffin Mills started the year 1-for-25, but got the start on Saturday against the Bravehearts and gave the Starfires a three-run home run and four RBIs with his two-hit day.
The following day on the road at Worcester, the Morristown, New Jersey native was even better with another three-run bomb, five runs driven in, and two runs to go along with his three hits. Mills became the second Starfires to get multiple home runs on the season and is now third on the club with 10 runs batted in.
In the Starfires’ 6-2 win against the Silver Knights on Tuesday, June 24, Keene State product and reigning Little East Pitcher of the Year, Jake Jachym, was the star of the show, going seven strong with just five hits and two runs to get the win.
Stonehill product Tanyon Weber had a couple of solid relief appearances over the week, combining for 3.2 innings, allowing just one hit and one run across two outings. Jasper Nadel was the winning pitcher in the Sunday, June 29 victory over the Bravehearts with three innings of one-run ball, while Charleston’s Trey Lamay recorded a save in that game.
Looking forward to the upcoming week, the Starfires will play six of their seven games on the road, beginning with a twin bill at Holman Stadium against the Nashua Silver Knights on Tuesday, July 1, with one of those games being a makeup game from an earlier postponement due to inclement weather.
The Silver Knights are the only team Westfield owns a winning record over, winning two of their three against Nashua thus far. The lone FCBL New Hampshire team is 14-14 on the season and has lost five of their past seven.
Nashua is fairly average in terms of team hitting, but the team pitching is second in both ERA at 3.65 and opponent average at .212.
Ernie Little has been near the top of the league lead at batting average for several weeks now, and despite coming down to earth a little bit lately, the Fordham Ram is still hitting .418 to go along with 14 swiped bags. Cole Patterson is the league leader with 15 stolen bases and has hit a solid .280 on the season.
Next on the docket is a game down in Connecticut against the New Britain Bees on Wednesday, July 2.
The Bees have been well below .500 for the majority of the season, but thanks to wins in five of their past six, they have worked their way into the playoff picture with a 14-15 record. They have also owned the Starfires, going 4-1 against Westfield this year.
The Bees are one of the worst offensive teams in the league with a .214 team average and a league-low .593 OPS. New Britain’s success has largely revolved around their pitching staff, with their FCBL-best 3.41 ERA.
The Bees lead the league in strikeouts on both offence and defence, with the pitching staff being led by Carson Parrott, who has a 2.10 earned run average and 25 strikeouts in 21 innings.
Next up on Thursday, July 3, is the only home game of the week, a matchup against the Vermont Lake Monsters.
The Lake Monsters have bested the Starfires in all six matchups this year, with all those games being played in Burlington. Vermont has been near the top of the league all year and is currently a half-game behind the Worcester Bravehearts for first place.
Vermont’s pitching is middle of the pack, although the staff has walked the most batters out of any team, including a game against the Starfires in Week 4 where they allowed 13 bases on balls. The hitting is second-best, though, with their .252 average, 5.7 runs per game, and league-topping 45 doubles and 243 hits.
Sam Cavossa has emerged as the league leader in average with an active eight-game hitting streak to get to .421 on the year. The Saint Michael’s product is also third in the league with 21 RBIs.
The top RBI-man and home run leader also plays for the Lake Monsters. Shaun McMillon has six round-trippers and an FCBL best 28 runs driven in, not to mention his .319 average.
John Delgado looks to be the best pitcher in the league up to this point. The Stevenson University lefty has a league-best 1.13 ERA to go along with 31 punchouts, which is also the highest in the FCBL by quite a large margin.
The Starfires will then spend Independence Day in Burlington for their second straight game against the Lake Monsters on Friday, July 4. This game will be the beginning of a season-long seven-game road trip.
The next game of the road trip will be at Dodd Stadium versus the Norwich Sea Unicorns on Saturday, July 5.
The Starfires are 3-4 against the defending champions, who have really struggled finding their groove this season with an 11-17 record on the outside looking in at the playoffs.
The offensive numbers are similar to New Britain’s, but the Sea Unicorns have a 5.35 team ERA and have also committed more errors than any other team in the league.
One bright spot for the Sea Unicorns is starting pitcher Matt Wootton, with the ECSU product being one of the best pitchers in the league, going 2-1 with a 2.34 ERA across the span of four starts.
Westfield will conclude the week with another game against the Lake Monsters at Centennial Field on Sunday, July 6.
To recap, the Starfries will have just one game at Bullens Field this week, that being a game on Thursday, July 3, against the Vermont Lake Monsters.
One can find and purchase tickets to this game, and all other Starfires home games online at www.westfieldstarfires.com.
