Westfield Voc Ousts McCann Tech Baseball
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- It was a fourth inning rally for No. 12 Westfield Vocational that put the Tigers on the board after a scoreless three innings with No. 5 McCann Tech in their 6-0 Western Mass Division 4 Tournament win on Friday at Joe Wolfe Field.
It started with an RBI triple for Jake Parsons bringing in Tyler French to get on board 1-0. Nate boulay then followed with an RBI double, and Chris Boyden had a RBI single to take a 3-0 lead after the top of the fourth inning.
McCAnn Senior Sean Davis started on the mound and fought back in that fourth inning, stopping the rally with a strikeout and two groundouts
Davis pitched four innings, striking out three; he was replaced on the mound in the fifth by Austin Miller after Westfield's leadoff hitter Nick Clegg got on base.
"Sean proved to us in the Vocational tournament that he was our number one by far," McCann coach Pat Ryan said. "I have Miller as our number two, so I started our horse and he did exactly what we asked him to do."
"He threw strikes. He had his stuff. They just hit his stuff, and unfortunately it just wasn't his day."
The Hornets came out in the bottom of the fourth and had a lead off single from Charles Bohl III followed by a walk for Collin Racette, putting two on base. Dylan Gigliotti was then thrown out at first and Westfield Voc pitcher Jake Parsons struck out two.
In the top of the fifth, Conner Hebda had an RBI double, putting Westfield Voc ahead 4-0; the Hornets went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
"I brought in Miller, he gets out there does exactly what Sean does and hits his spots," Ryan said. "Westfield just came to play today."
Westfield Voc scored its final run in the top of the sixth inning from Andrew Daniels on a wild pitch.
Parsons pitched seven innings for Westfield Voc, striking out 11 and walking three. It was the third time that McCann has faced him this season. The two teams split in the regular season.
"Jake Parsons is 4-0 on us going into this year," Ryan said. "We were trying to fight for that banner this year, and I thought Parsons was one of our hurdles. And we beat him the first time, so that built a lot of confidence."
"Preparing for Jake Parsons for the playoffs, he's done a fantastic job against us, I don't know if it's a mental thing for us, but he did a heck of job only allowing us three hits."
The Hornets finished the season with a record of 17-6 and won the school's first Tri-County title since 1987. They're losing six seniors from this year;s squad and will be returning seven regulars for next year's team.
"We had a heck of a season," Ryan said. "Putting a banner up in our gym is an awesome accomplishment for our boys, this is my fourth year here and third year making it to Western Mass. We haven't gotten past the first round and that would have been an awesome thing for us today, but unfortunately it didn't fall our way."
"I have expectations for next year, we're going to have some good teams coming up."