West End upsets Jefferson Parish

By Stan Hudy

CLIFTON PARK – At the summer home of horse racing, West End Baseball would have gone off as a 100-1 long shot, a gray mare in a stakes race. But for those who believed in the band of 15 red-shirted ballplayers, the payoff would have been tremendous.

After starting 0-2 in pool play, West End, out of Williamsport, Pennsylvania has proven to be a winner, capturing four straight games, including a 1-0 victory over Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Thursday afternoon, 1-0.

The group from the home of Little League Baseball continued to make history Thursday afternoon, knocking off the defending 14-year-old Babe Ruth World Series champions, advancing to the championship game 7:30 p.m. today at Clifton Park’s World Series field.

“I wouldn’t say in a million years they wouldn’t beat us,” Jefferson Parish manager Bill Babin said. “But I would say in a million years they wouldn’t shut us out.”

Continuing to use small ball baseball fundamentals, West End went ahead 1-0 in the top of the first inning and its stellar defense made it stand.

Bob Donato led off the inning with a double down the left field line and moved to third on a check swing by Ed Belton’s check swing and subsequent passed ball. Steve Stopper would then hit into his most important ground out of the year to shortstop, scoring Donato.

“The first pitch is always a strike down the middle,” Donato said. “I didn’t try to do too much with it, just sent it down the left field line and I got to second base.”
A little practice doesn’t hurt either.

“He (Donato) called us this morning at about 9 a.m. and wanted to come over for batting practice,” West End coach Dave Cipriani said. “He came over with Ed (Belton) and each took about 40 cuts. They worked hard for it today.”

Just like a bettor checking the horses at Saratoga’s paddock during the post parade, Cipriani has several of his pitchers throw from the practice mind before he decides on his starter.

On Thursday, Tony Gotshall, got the call, throwing 3 ½ innings, allowing only two hits and walking four batters before turning the ball over to Wednesday starter, Jeff Worthington. The curly, blonde from Pennsylvania went 2 and 2/3 innings allowing only one hit, walking one and striking out two. Sean Ruane came in to close out the game, giving up a hit and a walk to earn the save.

“Tony (Gotshall) said he had a couple, Joel (Worthington) said he had a couple left and Sean (Ruane) said he could go to,” Cipriani said. “That got us to seven.”
All three pitchers had enough gas in the tank for the final four contest.

“I was psyched,” Worthington said. “I was ready.”

Jefferson Parish’s one chance to tie the game came in the bottom of the fourth when Joe Palmer led off with a single to right center and moved to second on a wild pitch. Heads-up base running by Palmer got him to third on Jordan Rittiner’s foul pop out to the right fielder, tagging up and racing to third. Nate Fury walked, putting runners on the corners and Babin took a chance with Jeremy Stout at the plate. Stout would strike out and Fury raced towards second base. West End shortstop Jon Taddeo intercepted the throw in front of the second base bag and fired towards home where Palmer was tagged out sliding into home by Jon Steele.

“That was my decision,” Babin said. “I thought that we had to make something happen. They ran the play and they made it.”

While the West End players are on a high, the Jefferson Parish squad will not have a chance to make history as the first team to repeat as 14-year-old and 13-15-year-old champions.

“Because the organization has been so fortunate, anything less than first place is a total disappointment,” Babin said. “They’re just not happy just to get to the World Series.”