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Call for the ball
About a week ago, Westfield senior pitcher Tommy Fenyak noticed Tuesday night's marquee matchup with Oakton on his team's schedule. Knowing that he'd never started a game against the rival Cougars, Fenyak approached his coach, called for the ball and was eventually granted his wish.
Seven days and seven innings later, Fenyak delivered a performance that legitimized his request.
Fenyak tossed a complete game to earn his third win of the season, allowing three hits and one unearned run that came in the fourth inning, and the Bulldogs announced their presence in the Northern Region with a 7-1 home upset of Oakton.
“It feels great,” said Fenyak, who also recorded a strikeout, allowed a walk and hit two batters. “It's always good to beat Oakton. They're the toughest team we play in the district, and we played a great game against them.”
Using a slick combination of his two-seam fastball and sharp-breaking curveball, Fenyak worked in favorable counts and kept his teammates involved all night.
“Your defense is always going to play better when you have a kid that throws strikes and is hopefully working ahead in the count,” said Westfield coach Chuck Welch, whose team improved to 5-3 overall, 2-0 in the Concorde District with the win. “Your defense tends to play much better when that happens, so I think a lot of ground ball outs were because the ball is moving a little bit.”
Fenyak was aided by an offensive explosion in the first inning. Left fielder Aaron Hoover doubled to start the game, and second baseman Richie Brown traded places with Hoover when he smacked a double of his own. First baseman Mike Snyder followed with a solo home run, staking Westfield to an early 3-0 lead over the Cougars (6-2, 0-1 Concorde).
If not for Fenyak, Brown's performance would've been more noticeable -- not that he was concerned. Brown finished a perfect 4-for-4 with the aforementioned double, a home run, three RBIs and two runs scored.
“It's great to be at home,” said Brown, who vehemently denied that he should have been recognized in the same sentence as Fenyak -- his good friend. “You always see the ball better where you are consistently, and we were on it today.”
Westfield spread its final four runs over the last three innings, scoring twice in the sixth to cement the win.
“Huge night offensively,” said Welch, whose team pounded out 10 hits against Oakton starter Bart Reese and will host Forest Park Saturday at 1 p.m. “Our goal is to try and spread [the runs] out, and when that happens, then everyone helps at some point. Certainly, I'm sure Richie Brown is responsible for several of those runs.”
So Richie got the game ball, right?
“No ... Tommy,” joked Welch, who actually doesn't even give out game balls, preferring instead to focus on the team side of things. “Certainly Richie had a great night, but to throw seven innings, give up three hits and one run against a team like Oakton ... that was awesome.”
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