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Thursday, April 21, 2016
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Sports, Humor and Commentary
BLUE DEVIL HYLAND TOSSES FIVE-HITTER, COUGAR SCHWERDTFEGER BLASTS HOME RUN
Blue Devils Notch First Win, Top Cranford in Softball, 6-2
run well over the centerfield
fence. It was the first home run
of Schwerdtfeger’s high school
The Westfield High School softcareer. Schwerdtfeger ran the
ball team defeated Cranford, 6base paths as if she was trying to
2, on April 14 at Adams Field in
beat out a throw home.
Cranford. The Blue Devils were
“I just saw the pitch coming in
able to notch their first win of the
to me,” said Schwerdtfeger. “I
season behind the strong pitchthink it was a fast
ing of sophomore Bridget Hyland,
ball but it was out
who pitched a complete game
over the plate
and allowed five hits while strikand I was able to
ing out three. Hyland was the
time it. When I
beneficiary of solid defensive play
hit the ball I
throughout the game.
wasn’t
even
“The defense was very strong
watching where
today,” said Hyland. “I felt like
it went. I just
my teammates had my back when
kept running unthe Cranford players hit the ball
til someone told
well. There were a lot of great
me to slow down.
plays made in the field that kept
It is a big thrill!”
them from scoring.”
The Cougars
One such play came in the botcould
not capitaltom of the sixth inning when
ize on the colosCranford’s Jillian Skalski came to
sal blast though
the plate with runners on the
as they stranded
corners and two outs. Skalski
two runners in
laced a sinking line drive into
the inning and
leftfield that Westfield’s Elena
headed into the
Elliott snagged via a shoestring
sixth down by a
catch that possibly prevented two
run.
runs from scoring.
“Hitting was a
Westfield scored once in the
problem today,”
top of the second after Lauren
said Cranford
Fernandez slapped a two-out
Head
Coach
single, stole second and scored
H e a t h e r
on an RBI single by Danielle
Bormann. “Their
Rinaldi. It could have been a
pitcher was not
bigger inning for Westfield as
overpowering
Cranford starter Brenna Dolan
but she did a
walked the next two batters to
good job of loload the bases. But Dolan rallied
Alex Lowe for The Westfield Leader and The Times
her
to retire Jordan Sacher on a pop STILL FRIENDS…Westfield sophomore Bridget Hyland, left, tossed a five-hitter against the cating
pitches.
We
up to third.
Cougars but Cranford’s Erin Schwerdtrfeger blasted a towering home run.
made a lot of conThe Cougars tied the score in
tact with the ball
ther damage.
but it was always put in play to
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Cranford answered with a run spots where they were and
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in the fifth when Schwerdtfeger Westfield made a lot of good
launched a titanic leadoff home plays in the field.”
In the sixth, Westfield added
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l'ennemi du journaliste three insurance runs with the
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help of a pair of errors that set
By ALEX LOWE
Specially Written for The Westfield Leader and The Times
Ballyhoo
the second. Julia Palozzola
doubled to left center with one
out and later scored on a hard
ground ball hit by Erin
Schwerdtfeger that got through
the legs of third baseman Rinaldi.
The score remained 1-1 until
the fifth inning. The Blue Devils
got runners to second and third
courtesy of Dolan, who first hit
Hailey Reilly with a pitch then
gave up an opposite field single
to Erica Lawrence. With two outs,
Ally Gulla delivered a two-run
single to center to make the score,
3-1. Dolan escaped without fur-
the stage for Lawrence to drive a
run home with a double off of the
leftfield fence. Natalie Patterson
followed that with a two-run
single to right that made the
score, 6-2, before Dolan finally
retired the side.
In the seventh, Westfield shut
the door on Cranford with infielders Julia Romano and Rinaldi each
making nice plays on hard hit line
drives to retire the side in order.
The win gave Westfield (1-4), a
much-needed victory in what has
been a very slow start to the
season.
“To get a win under our belts
will help us,” said Westfield Head
Coach Caitlin MacDonald. “We’ve
been playing better but we have
been making mistakes. Today
we definitely made the plays we
needed to make in order to win
the game. The plays in the seventh to end the game were examples of the girls doing just
that. We are a young group.
We’ve got a couple of freshmen
starters and a lot of sophomores,
so as we move on they will get
more experience and it should
make us a better team.”
With the loss, Cranford drops
to 2-4. After advancing to the
Union County Tournament title
game last season, Coach
Bormann is not worried about
the slow start though.
“We started slow last year before we got it turned around,”
said Bormann. “We’ve been hot
and cold at the plate so far and
we have a young pitching staff.
They are all freshmen and sophomores. But we will get better as
they all get better.”
Dolan went six innings for
Cranford, scattering eight hits,
while striking out four and walking three.
Westfield
Cranford
010 023 0
010 010 0
6
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