By Dan Machovina
PBR Ohio Assistant Scouting Director  

WESTLAKE – The snow melted and the sun came out making it possible to play a cold day of baseball. On hand, a Division I South West Conference matchup between the Westlake Demons (3-4) and No. 11 Brecksville-Broadview Heights Bees (3-2). With the weather obviously having an impact on both teams’ offense, Westlake would pull off the upset against the Bees in an extra inning 2-1 victory.

The name of the game in this one would be pitching and defense. The game was cruising along with both pitchers pounding the strike zone and both teams making the defensive plays. Six innings were played in just an hour. Brecksville sent out senior right-handed pitcher Josh Armbruster (Notre Dame College commit, ranked number 76 in Ohio) while Westlake would have senior righty Dylan Crocker toe the rubber. Both pitchers went the distance, and they combined for only five walks in eight full innings. Crocker would walk only one batter in his eight innings of work!

The first dent in the score board wouldn’t appear until the seventh inning. The visiting Bees struck first. Junior shortstop Dan Cody singled to right-field, junior first-baseman Taylor Cave would move him over to second base on a well-executed sacrifice bunt. With one out and a runner on second, a ground ball would move Cody to third base, and with two outs the number nine hitter junior left-fielder Kyle Stringer laced a single up the middle past a diving Demon shortstop to give the Brecksville-Broadview Heights a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.

Westlake responded in the bottom half of the inning. Hitting seventh in the lineup, designated hitter junior Billy Dreher got things started with a leadoff walk. Senior first-baseman JP Parfejewicz followed with a single to left field, and the nine hole hitter would fly out to center field. With one out and runners on second and third, rightfielder senior Mike Fikter grounded out to the third-baseman allowing the run to sneak in tying the game 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh.

Westlake would sent Crocker back to the mound and he responded by posting another zero on the board in the top of the eighth inning against the Bees. Westlake would have a golden opportunity with their three, four, and five hitters coming to the dish in the bottom half of the extra inning affair. With one out, the four and five hitters for Demons would produce back to back singles. The stage was set for Westlake to pull off the upset. Runners were on second and third with only one out the Demons got a long enough fly ball hit to center field from junior third-baseman Matt Duperow to give him a sacrifice fly game winning RBI setting off a Westlake celebration.

To view scouting notes from this game, please visit the Ohio High School Scouting Blog.  The blog gets updated throughout the week.

To discuss this game, please visit our partner JJHuddle.