SPRINGFIELD – American International College product, third-year Starfire, and Holyoke, Massachusetts native Josh Frometa set a franchise record with 91 games played for the Westfield Starfires on Sunday.
Frometa passed his former teammate Dan Burnett in the third annual Starfires Summer Classic at Forest Park, which resulted in an 11-5 loss to the Worcester Bravehearts on Sunday.
With the loss, the Starfires ended week 4 of the season with a 6-16 record. The Bravehearts have a 15-7 record with a half-game lead over the Vermont Lake Monsters to top the FCBL standings.
Early momentum in the showcase game went in favor of the Bravehearts after two singles and a double in the first gave Worcester their first run before Westfield recorded an out.
Those were all the hits the Bravehearts got in the frame, but two RBI groundouts gave the road team an early 3-0 lead.
The Bravehearts then got another run in the second after a leadoff double came around to score as Worcester expanded their lead up to four.
Worcester retired the first two batters in the second inning, but then Bravehearts starter Pat Clemmey completely lost his command. In response, the next five Starfires reached on free passes with three walks and two hit-by-pitches.
Northwestern’s Griffin Mills and Connecticut Husky Evan Menzel both picked up RBIs in the frame as the Starfires halved the lead down to 4-2.
However, Worcester responded in the third inning after two walks, a hit batter, and a wild pitch scored the first run. And then a single into center field plated two more Bravehearts, giving the FCBL leaders their largest lead of the day at 7-2.
The flurry of runs continued, with the Starfires plating two more in the bottom of the third. Frometa and Keene State’s Jonathan Chatfield both reached with a hit-by-pitch and a walk, respectively.
After a passed ball moved both into scoring position, Iona Gael Cole Silvia delivered a single to score both runners for a 7-4 ball game.
The runs just kept coming, and the Bravehearts scored another couple of runs in the fourth, one off a wild pitch and another on a sacrifice fly, as the score was now 9-4.
In the sixth, Silvia continued his nice day at the plate with a leadoff triple into the left-center gap. Two batters later, future Kansas State Wildcat Jack Quetschenbach entered as a pinch hitter and got the job done with an RBI groundout, giving the Starfires their fifth run of the day.
The Bravehearts tallied one run each in the seventh and eighth, with the seventh inning run being a leadoff walk coming around to score and the eighth inning run coming off a long ball from Jackson Marshall, making the game 11-5.
Westfield got hits from FIU product Alex Ulloa and Chatfield in the seventh and Menzel in the eighth, but failed to convert on the chances, leaving two runners stranded in both innings.
The Bravehearts carried their 11-5 advantage into the bottom of the ninth, where they retired Westfield to spoil the Starfires’ Summer Classic.
Silvia had two hits on the day, two runs driven in, and two runs scored to pace the Starfires in all three categories. Mills, Menzel, and Quetschenbach all logged one RBI apiece. Frometa was hit by a pitch and scored a run in his historic game.
The Starfires will be back in action on Tuesday for Taco Tuesday at Bullens Field, presented by Westfield State University, in a matchup against the Nashua Silver Knights at 6:30 p.m.
