Fillmore, NY – Friday night’s Class D Softball Far West Regional was billed to be a pitcher’s duel – with Westfield’s Haleigh Dellow and Friendship-Scio’s Nevaeh Ross, two of the best pitchers in the region, set to face off.
Ross was named the Section V Softball Player of the Year, and for good reason, as she fanned sixteen Westfield batters and surrendered six hits and four walks in a 4-0 victory over the Wolverines Friday night at Fillmore High School.
Ross and Dellow both started the game off hot, nearly matching each other’s strikeout totals in the first two innings – Ross with five and Dellow with three.
Westfield came close to scoring the game’s first run in the top of the third, as Drew Ernewein picked up a triple, and Dellow reached second on a fielder’s choice. Ross was able to pitch herself out of a jam, picking up two more strikeouts to give her eight through three innings.
Friendship-Scio then came into the bottom of the third and broke the scoreless tie, as Keely Sisson started with an infield single and stolen base and was promptly brought in on a Morghyn Ross single. Friendship added another run to make it 2-0 after three innings.
Westfield picked up two more hits in the fourth, but Ross continued to deal, picking up three more strikeouts.
Friendship picked up their last two runs on RBIs by Kendra Gleason and Kate Lamberson in the bottom of the fifth.
Westfield would get runners on second and third in their last ups in the seventh, but Ross shut the door with her sixteenth strikeout to close the door.
Westfield ends out the season 20-3, 11-1 in league play, and the Section VI Champions in Shawn Gnadzinski’s third season as head coach.
For Friendship-Scio, they will face the winner of Section IX’s Eldred and Section IV’s Deposit/Hancock at the Moriches Athletic Complex on Long Island next weekend.
Westfield Stats:
Dellow: 6 IP, 8 K, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 R; 0-1, reached on fielder’s choice twice, 2 SB
Ernewein: 2-3, Single, Triple
Friendship-Scio Stats:
Ross: 7 IP, 16 K, 6 H, 4 BB
Ross: 2-2, 2 Singles, RBI
Gleason: 1-2, Single, SB, RBI
Lamberson: 2 Walks, Fielder’s Choice, RBI
