Kipp lifts No. 6 seed Westhill
RIDGEFIELD — It wasn’t Kyle Kipp’s best performance, but the junior ace for Westhill did not back down on Saturday afternoon.
His strikeout total was down, but he fought through, trusted his defense, and pitched a complete game for No. 6 Westhill in a 4-2 win over No. 3 Ridgefield in the FCIAC quarterfinals.
“He wasn’t really sharp with the off-speed (pitches), but the kid just battles, and he is unfazed,” Westhill coach Mike Riveles said. “It doesn’t matter the situation; he’s competing and making his pitches. He got us the ‘W’ today.”
Despite being the lower seed in the tournament, Westhill and Kipp did not believe they were a lower seed.
“Definitely not. We definitely have our off days but when we are on, we are on,” he said. “Seeds doesn’t really matter in the FCIAC tournament because all the teams are good. We definitely don’t feel like we are a sixth seed at all.”
Knowing he would be pitching on one of the hottest days of the season, Kipp started his preparation on
Friday.
“I was drinking a lot of water, making sure I was hydrated and that was the most important factor for today,” Kipp said. “You don’t want to be on the mound all tired, dehydrated.”
Westhill advances to play No. 2 Danbury in the FCIAC semifinals on Monday at 7 p.m.
No. 6 WESTHILL 4, No. 3 RIDGEFIELD 2
WESTHILL ................. 004 000 0 — 4 5 4 RIDGEFIELD ............... 101 000 0 — 2 6 6 Batteries: W — Kyle Kipp and Connor Sullivan. R — Ben Cherico and Aidan Stern.
Records: Westhill 12-9, Ridgefield 16-5
No. 1 FAIRFIELD WARDE 4, No. 8 NORWALK 0
NORWALK .................. 0000000—026 FAIRFIELD WARDE ... 002 002 X — 4 7 0
Batteries: F — Zach Broderick, Paddy Galvin (7) and Roman DiGiacomo. N — Vince Velez, Robert Bedell (5) and Phillip Nora. 2B: F — Roman DiGiacomo, Garrett Larsen. N — Eddy Garabito-Soto.
Records: Fairfield Warde 18-3, Norwalk 1011
No. 2 DANBURY 11,
No. 7 ST. JOSEPH 0
ST. JOSEPH ........... 000 000 0 — 0 4 5 DANBURY ............ 232 22 0 X — 11 15 0 Batteries: D — Jacob Ditscher, Aidan Hefele (7) and Roman Hausmann. SJ — Matt Tabet, Nick Coppola (4), Gabriel Sand (5) and John McNabola.
2B: D — Kailan O’Dell, Roman Hausmann. SJ — Chris Simone. 3B: D — Nick Smith. HR: D — Nick Smith.
Records: Danbury 17-4, St. Joseph 11-10
No. 4 TRUMBULL 3,
No. 5 NEW CANAAN 0
NEW CANAAN ........... 000 000 0 — 0 2 1 TRUMBULL ................ 021 000 x — 3 5 2 Batteries: T — Connor Johnston and Scott Gell. NC — Tristian Pearl, Ryan Tonghini (6) and Zack Ramppen.
2B: T — Scott Gell