The West Haven softball team completed a doubleheader sweep on Wednesday afternoon to finish the season at 11-9 and get them a matchup with the No. 13 Norwalk Bears in the CIAC playoffs. The Westies started Wednesday off with a battle with the Darien Blue Wave, dedicating the game to Principal Pam Gardner, who continues to battle cancer.
The Blue Devils took an early 3-0 but saw the Blue Wave rally to tie and eventually take a 6-3 lead. Kasey Marron relieved Ivy Santos in the fifth inning, holding the Blue Wave scoreless the rest of the way and then she helped her own cause in the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk-off hit to score Santos with the winning run in a 7-6 victory. Kailey Carrano led the Westies with four hits while Ashlynn O’Keefe, Veronica Lynn and Morgan Peryer each had two hits in the win.
After celebrating their seniors, Makenna White, Michelle Madar and Cassie Thibodeau, the Westies went out and crushed the Hillhouse Academics, 16-0. The Blue Devils scored one in the first inning and then exploded for ten runs in the second on their way to the mercy rule-shortened, five inning victory. Senior Madar led the Westies with a pair of hits and five RBIs. Kasey Marron pitched three innings of shutout ball before giving way to Neve Krajcir, who pitched the final two innings preserving the shutout.
The girls traveled to face Norwalk on Tuesday in the first round of the CIAC playoffs. If victorious, the Blue Devils would get the winner of the E.O. Smith versus Darien contest on Wednesday.
The boys lacrosse team traveled to Branford on Monday evening and dropped a 14-9 decision to the Hornets. Logan Cole and Niko Kyle each had two goals while Matt Dowd, Nick Massaro, Justin Rivera and Tyler Moscato each picked up a goal in the loss. Kevin Moriarty made 21 saves in goal for West Haven.
On Wednesday, the Blue Devils concluded their regular season with a 7-0 shutout win over the Lyman Hall Trojans in Wallingford, behind a 30 save performance from Kevin Moriarty.
On Saturday morning, the Westies faced the Trumbull Eagles in the qualifying round of the CIAC playoffs. The Eagles scored 1:12 into the first quarter and never looked back in a 21-1 victory over the Blue Devils. Trumbull scored four, more goals in the first quarter and then put up seven, more goals over a span of 4:03 in the second quarter to put this one away.
With the Westies down, 21-0, there was no quit in this group. The Blue Devils worked the ball down the field and after several passes between Nick Massaro, Conner Fowler and Niko Kyle behind the Trumbull goal, Kyle drove to the front of the net and picked the corner with 1:03 left in the game to get the Westies on the board.
The baseball team’s season came to a close on Monday evening with a 14-3 loss to the Hand Tigers at Piurek Field. The Westies celebrated Senior Night but the Tigers were the ones celebrating after the mercy rule shortened, five inning victory. Mike Vitolo led the Blue Devils with two hits and a RBI while Chris Cavallaro had a hit and two RBIs in the loss.
Down 14-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Westies staged a rally when four, consecutive batters were hit by pitches. Ty Reeves, Brian Dupre and Diego Mehecha were all hit to load the bases. Mike Vitolo was then hit to force in Reeves and then Cavallaro singled to score two runs. That is where the rally died and the season came to an end for the Blue Devils.
The boys tennis team wrapped up its regular season last week with a 4-3 victory over the Hamden Green Dragons on Monday afternoon. Both James and Joseph Delgado swept their singles matches, 6-0, 6-0, Kent Dimaisip won, 6-1, 6-1 and Corey Smith was victorious, 6-0, 6-0 in singles action.
The CIAC LL playoffs started last week and saw West Haven’s top two seeded singles players team up as a doubles pair. James and Joseph Delgado defeated the doubles team from Fairfield Warde, 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 to advance to the third round on Tuesday. The Delgados faced the doubles pair of Butler and Daubenspeck from Ridgefield.
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