The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Grand slam boosts Westlake past North Olmsted
Cool and bitter weather returned to the Northeast Ohio baseball scene after a warm week prior to North Olmsted’s April 18 game at Westlake.
In the meantime, Westlake’s Cael Cipollone stayed hot by crushing a grand slam for his fourth home run of the year, and second grand slam of the season, as the Demons walked away with a 10-3 win to give North Olmsted its first loss in GLC play.
Up to bat with the bases juiced in the sixth inning with Westlake leading, 6-3, Cipollone took a good cut and devastated a 75 mph pitch over the deep leftcenter field portion of the fence for the grand salami. It was his second straight game with a home run in the sixth inning and third in the last four games. It doesn’t necessarily surprise the shortstop at this point.
“I wouldn’t say surprised, just more happy I can do it for my team, you know?” Cipollone said. “If we keep winning, everyone else will play better. That’s the end goal.”
Cipollone also launched an RBI double in the third inning for a two-hit, fiveRBI
LATE APRIL 18 WESTLAKE 10, NORTH OLMSTED 3
day. That extra base knock wound up tying Westlake and North Olmsted back up at 3-3 after the Eagles scored two runs in the top half of the inning.
“I mean when it comes down to Cael, he’s a very, very steady kid,” Westlake coach Larry Mosley said. “When it comes down to him, a couple of kids would go ahead and shy away from that moment. Cael goes and rises up to it. He realizes he won’t get beat on his best and he’ll go ahead and actually put his best swing on it. He’s been doing that as of late, I’m knocking on wood for him to keep it going and I’m happy he’s on our side to be honest with you.”
At the start of the game, North Olmsted’s Hayden Rios took a pitch deep for a home run over the right field wall to give the Eagles an early boost.
The game could have swung in a wildly different direction in the second inning, after a one-out double by North Olmsted’s Darren Krider brought up Brady Haug with a chance for North Olmsted to double its lead.
Haug lined a low-hanging
drive into right field and right fielder William Hennessey — making his first start of the season — made a fantastic diving grab, glove outstretched, preventing a run from scoring and eliminating the possibility for another North Olmsted extra-bases knock.
“I saw where the ball was going, I knew I could get there,” Hennessey said. “I wanted to help out my teammates, so I did the best I could. I was aggressive and I just tried to do my best to get to the ball as best I could. Laid my body out.”
That led into Hennessey coming up to the
dish in the bottom half of the frame, getting on base with a single before stealing second and coming around to score on a Jake Jung base knock through the right side. It was a huge moment coming off of the great catch a few plays before.
“It was great because I’ve got to have my teammate’s back,” Hennessey said. “(Starter Chris Protos) is pitching a good game. Just because he lets up one hit, that’s all right. I’ve got to have his back, and it helps stop (their) momentum. It was good for the team to realize we were still in it, to make sure our heads weren’t down and I’m just
glad I did.”
While this was a tough one to lose, with North Olmsted knowing it can stay with the reigning GLC champion Demons.
“I felt we pitched well enough to win,” North Olmsted coach Keith Sandy said. “Our starter came out and he kept us in it. We were two runs behind when he came out. We just kind of let it go there in the last couple of innings. We gave away too many free bases, too many free opportunities to score and their great hitting team and they took advantage of it.”
The two teams play again April 19 to finish off the two-game GLC set.