The REPORTER
The Westfield baseball team beat Hamilton Southeastern 9-5 on Friday at the Shamrocks field to earn a split of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference series.
The Shamrocks scored their first run in the first inning: Nick Fero drew a walk, then scored when Drew Law blasted a triple. The Royals tied the game in the third inning after Parker O’Steen hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Kian Kelly.
Southeastern went up 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning; Colin Goley went home on a Tyler Noel single. Westfield answered that with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Fero’s center field single sent Tyler Gentry and Ben Wasserstrom home.
The Royals took the lead back in the top of the fifth. Kam Seitz sent a triple into right field and that scored Alex Billman. Seitz then went home on an O’Steen triple and HSE led 4-3.
The Rocks surged ahead in the sixth inning, scoring six runs. Gentry tied the game when Fero reached on error, then Wasserstrom scored the go-ahead run on Law’s RBI groundout. Caden Lindsey got home after Brayden Hibler reached on error, Fero scored on Jake Russell’s center field single, then Alex Rudolph cracked a double to send Hibler and Russell home.
Southeastern scored a run in the top of the seventh when Luke Sivak singled in Maddux Bach with two outs. But Law threw a strikeout to finish the game.
Sam Everts got the pitching win, with four strikeouts in two and a third innings. O’Steen had two hits for the Royals, a triple and a double. Josh Lesniewski pitched four innings and struck out four.
Westfield is 6-6 in conference play and 13-10 overall, while Southeastern is 4-8 in the conference and 11-13 overall. The Shamrocks host Kokomo on Monday, while the Royals host Center Grove on Tuesday.