Foxborough Warriors Fall to Westwood in Softball

Every team has their off days. Unfortunately for Foxborough, that day came while facing a red hot Westwood team. While the Warriors hung in the game early on, it was not enough to prevent a 19-4 loss to the Wolverines.

It started as a normal game for the Warriors. After leaving 2 runners on base in the bottom of the first, the Warriors showed potential in their play. Playing small ball, the Warriors advanced runners but couldn't get that one big hit to put runs on the board. In the other half of the first Westwood would score in the bottom of the 1st with a Liz Loftus hit to drive in Sheila O'Sullivan for a 1-0 lead.

The Warriors would fight back and try to make it a game. Taking advantage of a Westwood throwing error to first, Eva Mazzoni would tie the game up at 1. With Jess Septellea on third, the Warriors could not find the hit to get her home. Instead, Westwood pitcher E.B. Messieo found her way out of the jam striking out Vicky Solomon and forcing Joanna Magnusson into a ground out.

Westwood continued to make costly errors into the third inning. Once again capitalizing on a defensive error, Foxborough took a 3-1 lead with the runs coming from Brenna Connolly and Ari Zanecchia.

That would be the last of Foxboro's offensive production. Going forward, Westwood began to clamp down on Foxboro's batters. Expecting the Warriors to play a game of small ball, the Wolverines looked to back them into a corner and shutdown their main offensive weapons.

"We knew coming in they were trying to get as many base runners off us doing as many different things as possible. We were ready for their bunts," said Westwood coach Jonas Sherr. "We didn’t handle a couple of them as well as we could of but I liked the way we rebounded."

Without the ability to use the bunt and advance runners, the Warriors offense was shut down. This would lead to the Wolverines showing off their big hit offense.

The Westwood batters started hitting and the hits were huge. With the help of some timely hits and Foxboro errors, the Wolverines threw 7 runs on the board in the bottom of the 3rd. With all the runs coming with 2 outs, Westwood did everything to frustrate the Foxborough defense. Stealing bases and scoring on wild pitches, the Wolverines played as vicious as their mascot name implies. Sheila O'Sullivan would cap off the inning with a 2 run home run. She would go 2-4 with 2 RBIs from the home run.

Foxborough tried to chip away at the lead with a Vicky Solomon run to make it a 4-8 game but it would not be enough. The Westwood bats were not done yet. Westwood would have a 4 run 5th inning that would be followed up by a 7 run 6th inning. The deficit was so bad that Foxboro forfeited their final inning of play to take the 19-4 defeat.

"Westwood came to play.  When you have that going for you gotta come in and play day in and day out," said an extremely frustrated Warriors coach Lauren Cucinotta after the game.

For the Wolverines, it was a highlight day. Westwood pitcher E.B. Messieo went 4-5 with 3 RBIs and a run scored. On the mound, Messieo struck out 4 and only allowed 3 hits. Liz Loftus also went 4-5 with 3 RBIs. Rachel Massotta went 3-5 with 2 RBI and 2 runs.

For Westwood, it was a spectacular day. Relying on big hits, the Wolverines threw run after run on the board and made a statement about their offense.

"I think our offense showed what they are capable of. We have a really good line up 1-9 plus that on the bench and its nice to see their hard work in practice pay off," said Wolverines coach Jonah Sherr.

The Warriors will look to rebound Monday against Franklin. The game is set for 3:30 at the Igo School. The Wolverines meanwhile, will try to repeat their offensive success on Monday at 3:45 against Medfield.