NEWS

By: Michael K. Conway 

    The Danbury Westerns, clearly brimming with confidence after an 8-2 thrashing of the Vermont Mountaineers last game, walked onto the field in Kingston, RI like they had already won. “We knew we were going to see a good righty out of Boston College, we knew what we had in store, we knew what we had to do, and we knew we had to hit off the fastball.  We told our guys to stay loose and be selectively aggressive and hit off the fast ball and have a good time. We want to set the tempo as coaches and as an organization that this is summer baseball and we are going to have fun with it,” said manager Josh Parrow.
    The Danbury Westerns (2-4) handed the Ocean State Waves (5-2) their second loss of the season with a powerful 6-2 final score. The Westerners timely hitting in the third inning which included a pair of singles from Jesse Uttendorfer (NJIT) and Eddie Silva (Florida International University) and a sacrifice bunt from Jason Agresti (Binghamton University) allowed the Westerners to put up an early four runs on the Waves. “We have been talking a lot about the approach, we’ve been speaking about it since we have started the season, but in the last few games has been when it’s kind of clicking with them and now they have a better understanding of the approach and how important the approach is,” said hitting coach, Richie Benes. 
    The Waves would battle back however after Alex Holderbach (Eastern Kentucky University) smashed a solo home run into deep left-center field. Also in that inning an RBI single from Austin Upshaw (Kennesaw State University) scored Dean Lockery (Central Connecticut State University) from third. Now with the deficit cut in half, the Waves were threatening to make this a ball game.    
    Westerns starting pitcher, Enzo Esposito (Post University) remained calm and poignant on the mound as he came out in the fourth and stuck out two batters, caused one pop out to the catcher, Tyler Dietrich (University of South Florida) and walked one batter. Taking over for the Westerners in the fifth inning was Westerners relief pitcher and side-arm slinger, Ryan Testani (Seton Hall University) Testani came in and threw and absolute gem for the rest of the game. Testani retired the side in the sixth and seventh innings. For the rest of the game Testani walked two batters, gave up only two hits, and stuck out six Ocean State batters. To cap off the night Testani stuck out the last Ocean State hitter, with a called strike three that Ocean State nine-hole hitter Dean Lockery watched cross over the plate. Testani, whose side arm throwing motion has proved vital to the Westerners bullpen this season, thinks that his pitching style has something to do with his successes thus far. “I started throwing with the side arm motion, about halfway through my sophomore year and I’m going into my senior year now and it’s just been a long process, of finding the correct arm slot with my body, and you can definitely tell that the hitters don’t see too many guys like this and playing under the lights at night, certainly benefits,” said Testani. 
    Paired with an excellent outing by both starting and relief pitchers, Westerners lineup, filled with confidence from their most recent game, came out looking to repeat. With six runs, off of seven hits, it certainly seems that the Westerners are getting into a very strong hitting rhythm. Alongside their suburb hitting in the third inning, the Danbury lineup perked up gain in the eighth inning to really put the game away. Up 4-3 in the eighth inning, the Westerner came out looking for blood, and blood they did find. Starting the inning was, Eddie Silva, who singled to start the eighth inning rally. Behind him was Coco Montes (University of South Florida) who moved over Silva with a single of his own. With a runner in scoring position, pinch hitter Giovanni Dingcong (St. Thomas Aquinas College) roped a single down the third base line to drive in Silva on third base. Then after a single from Uttendorfer, the Westerners found themselves up 6-2 on the Waves.
    The Westerners look to take on the Mystic Schooners (3-4) tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Rogers Park.