Westfield Baseball Falls to Undefeated Cranford

There’s no way any baseball team – not even Westfield with all of its miracle comebacks – is going to beat a quality opponent like Cranford when it commits more errors than it produces base hits. 

That is not the recipe for success against the defending Watchung Division champions, especially when it has one of its aces on the mound. 

Westfield fumbled the ball immediately in the first inning, with visiting Cranford taking advantage of two errors by scoring three runs. That gave the Cougars the lead for good and was all the run production starting pitcher Ryan Williamson needed as Cranford rolled to a 9-1 Union County Conference-Watchung Division victory Tuesday at Robert Brewster Sr. Memorial Field. 

Westfield had a two-game winning streak snapped and fell to 3-2 overall and 1-2 in the Watchung Division. Cranford remained undefeated at 4-0 and is in first place in the Watchung Division at 3-0. 

Williamson, a hard-throwing junior left hander, was ahead of most Westfield batters with a tough fastball to hit. He yielded only two singles and a double in five complete innings, while striking out nine and walking two. 

Westfield starting pitcher Brett Ryan did not pitch poorly, but did not receive sufficient fielding behind him. He allowed eight runs – five of them earned – on nine hits, while striking out five and walking none in five complete innings.

Westfield committed four of its five errors with the senior right hander on the mound. 

Cranford junior shortstop Sean Feeney (2-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 runs) put Cranford ahead for good at 1-0 in the top of the first with an RBI-groundout to short. Four batters later, sophomore center fielder Tommy Trotter delivered an opposite field two-out, two-strike, two-run single to right to make it 3-0. 

A team as good as Cranford will make the opposition pay for the mistakes it makes and the top of the first was no exception. Westfield committed errors in the outfield and the infield with two of the three runs Ryan gave up in the frame being unearned. 

“Defensively in the first inning we just killed ourselves,” Westfield head coach Bob Brewster said. “We could have probably been out of that first inning with just one run had we fielded the ball cleanly.” 

Cranford also hit the ball well, banging out four doubles and two triples among its 11 hits. 

“Cranford did hit the ball, but when they hit the ball where you can make plays you’ve got to make them,” Brewster said.

Williamson (2-0) was in a groove from the start, retiring the first seven batters he faced on four strikeouts and a total of just 27 pitches. He is showing no ill effects of the separated shoulder he suffered in last fall’s football state playoffs. 

“I didn’t even really throw any off speed pitches today, I was throwing all fastballs and working them in and out,” Williamson said. “(James) O’Rourke likes to usually pull the ball, so I was working him out and jamming him in.” 

Williamson retired O’Rourke, Westfield’s leadoff batter, the first two times he faced him, on a ground out to third in the first and a strikeout swinging on a 3-2 pitch in the third. 

The first batter to reach base against Williamson was the first to get to a three-ball count against him. That was Westfield sophomore catcher Mike Ionta, who produced an opposite field bloop single to short left in the third with one out.

The only run Williamson gave up was on his third of four strikeouts in the fifth inning, with his wild pitch on the strikeout allowing batter Matt Varakian to reach first base and base runner Eric Demers to score from third on the play.

“I felt really good and felt that I had good command of my fastball,” Williamson said. “I was spotting it up and throwing it where (Chris) Folinusz (Cranford catcher) told me where to throw it.”

“Ryan had command of his fastball and off speed pitch and he gave us a very good outing, so we’re very pleased,” Cranford head coach Dennis McCaffery said. “He did throw a couple of off speed pitches, but I thought he had command of both sides of the plate with his fastball.”

Leading Cranford offensively was junior right fielder Andrew DiFrancesco, who was a home run shy hitting for the cycle. Now firmly entrenched as Cranford’s No. 3 batter in the lineup, the lefty-batting DiFrancesco (5-5, 140) reached base all four times. He was 3-for-4, with two RBI, two stolen bases and three runs. Don’t let his size fool you. He has plenty of pop in his bat.

“I was hitting the ball well and I was tracking the pitches down so I could get solid contact,” DiFrancesco said.

DiFrancesco immediately showed he could hit last year during his first season on the varsity. McCaffery had DiFrancesco batting ninth initially, with DiFrancesco banging out two hits in last year’s season-opening 9-3 home win over Union.
DiFrancesco gradually moved up in the order and is now one of the top No. 3 hitters in Union County.

“Batting third you see a lot of good pitches,” DiFrancesco said. “You’ve just got to stay disciplined and look for your pitch to hit.”

After reaching on an infield error and then stealing two bases and scoring in the top of the first, DiFrancesco belted an RBI-double down the right field line in the third and in the fifth blasted an RBI-triple to the right-center gap, with the ball rolling all the way to the fence. He added a single in the seventh and scored his third run.

“Andrew does a nice job,” McCaffery said. “He works very hard in the off-season on his swing. He has a good approach at the plate and fortunately today he had some good at-bats.”

Cranford junior third baseman George Georgeadis connected on an opposite field RBI-double to the left-center gap in the fourth to make it 5-0.

Cranford started to hit Ryan with more authority in the fifth when, after an infield error, Feeney produced an opposite field RBI-double, DiFrancesco connected on his RBI-triple and cleanup batter Folinusz blasted an RBI-double to put Cranford ahead 8-0.

“Against Bridgewater-Raritan (in Westfield’s 6-1 home win Monday) we didn’t make any errors,” Brewster said. “We made every play, including three double plays. We’ll bounce back from this.”

Taking over the catching reigns left vacated by 2011 New Jersey Player of the Year and present Georgia Tech freshman A.J. Murray, Ionta was solid behind the plate for the Blue Devils. He threw out three base runners attempting to steal, including one trying to advance to second base in the first inning and two trying to get to third base in the second and third innings.

Ionta also looked sharp coming out from behind the plate to field two bunt attempts, both times firing strikes to Westfield first baseman Mike Coletta for outs.

“I thought he had a real good game today,” Brewster said.

Ionta was also 1-for-2 at the plate, including a walk his second time up and a hard hit fly out to right field in his final at-bat.

“We have a tradition, whoever is the player of the game for us has to pick up the batting cage and that’s where he is right now,” said Brewster, with Ionta selected Westfield’s top player against Cranford. “It’s just to keep him humble. If he hit three home runs and we won the game he still would have to clean up the cage.
For a sophomore I think he’s going to be a pretty good player. He’s still got a lot of things to learn, but the potential is definitely there.”

Hitting safely for Westfield, in addition to Ionta, were Coletta and Varakian with singles and Demers with a double. 

UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-WATCHUNG DIVISION GAME

CRANFORD (4-0, 3-0)              3   0   1     1   1   3     1 – 9  11 3

WESTFIELD (3-2, 1-2)              0   0   0     0   1   0     0 – 1   4  5

WINNING PITCHER: Ryan Williamson, junior LH (2-0).
5 innings complete (94 pitches), 1 earned run, 3 hits, 9 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 balks

LOSING PITCHER: Brett Ryan, senior RH (0-1).
5 innings complete (76 pitches), 8 runs-5 earned, 9 hits, 5 strikeouts, 0 walks, one hit batter

DOUBLES: Cranford – Andrew DiFrancesco, George Georgeadis, Sean Feeney, Chris Folinusz. Westfield – Eric Demers.

TRIPLES: Cranford – Ryan Williamson, Andrew DiFrancesco. Westfield – None.

HOME RUNS: Cranford – None. Westfield – None.