SPRINGFIELD – Suiting up in the same city where he plays his collegiate baseball, American International College’s Josh Frometa drove in four, including hitting a three-run home run, to help propel the Westfield Starfires to a 9-4 win over the Worcester Bravehearts in the Starfires’ 2nd annual Summer Classic on Sunday at the Walker Memorial Grandstand in Forest Park.
Westfield is now 31-19-1 for 63 points in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League standings.
The team has tied its single-season wins record set in both 2021 and 2023; those teams played 65 and 63 games respectively, while this season’s squad has reached the mark in just 50 games.
The Starfires wasted no time in jumping out to a lead as Quinnipiac University’s Kyle Garbowski led off the first with a four-pitch walk. He was erased on a groundout by Central Connecticut State University’s Gianno Merlonghi, but the center fielder beat the throw to avoid the double play.
Kansas State University’s Chandler Murray then worked a walk to put a pair on. Two batters later, Frometa fell behind 0-2 but was able to drive a pitch to center field, scoring Merlonghi for a 1-0 advantage.
Two pitches later, the lead quadrupled. Hofstra University’s Luke Masiuk took hold of an 0-1 offering and blasted it over the fence for a three-run home run for a 4-0 lead.
In the third, Merlonghi and Murray both earned free passes, setting up Frometa for another chance at driving in runs. He capitalized, crushing a 1-0 pitch over the bullpen and expanding the lead to 7-0.
The Bravehearts were undeterred and cut into the lead twice with two-run home runs of their own; Ronan Donohue launched a shot to right in the fourth, and Alejandro Soriano followed in the fifth with his own.
Owen Pincince then smashed a 2-2 pitch to right and it looked like a home run, but it was knocked down at the wall by right fielder Taylor Gaspar. The Stonehill College outfielder fired the ball back to the infield as Pincince was between second and third; Central Connecticut’s Jackson Haker applied the tag, and Pincince was called out.
That seemed to deflate the momentum for the visitors, as did a strong showing by the bullpen; the game’s remaining runs came in the eighth for Westfield as Garbowski scored from second when Merlonghi hit a bouncer to short that was mishandled, and Merlonghi came in unearned as well thanks to a line-drive single to right on the very next pitch by Murray for the 9-4 final.
Franklin Pierce University’s Kyle Salvati was the winning arm; he conceded four runs on five hits with six strikeouts in five frames. Behind him, Wheaton College’s Gregory Strite, Trinity College’s Brendan Grady, George Washington University’s Declan Wywoda, and Vanderbilt University’s Alex Grant combined for four innings with just three hits and six strikeouts.
The win leaves the Starfires needing just one standings point across the remaining seven games to guarantee they will finish with a higher points percentage than the fifth-place Worcester Bravehearts, or for the Bravehearts to lose a single game of their remaining nine, and clinch a playoff berth.
Westfield will attempt to lock up the postseason on Tuesday at Campanelli Stadium against the Brockton Rox at 6:30 p.m.
