West’s Weller with Winning Walk-off
DOWNINGTOWN—It’s the scenario every kid dreams about. The score is tied in the bottom half of the seventh inning against the arch rival. The batter comes to the plate and delivers a home run to win the game and the championship. That very scenario played out in real-life as Downingtown West’s Darby Weller connected on a walk-off solo shot to lift the Whippets (16-1, 15-1) to a 7-6 victory over crosstown rival Downingtown East (8-7-1, 7-6-1).
Even better, the home run clinched the Ches-Mont National division crown for the Whippets, who also won the National in 2019. The worst Downingtown West can do is a tie with Avon Grove, but the Whippets hold the tie-breaker with a season sweep of the Red Devils.
“I came up to the plate just hoping to get a base hit to keep the inning going,” said Weller. “It’s always a big game when we play East in any sport, so it’s pretty exciting to have a walk-off home run.”
Things weren’t going West’s way in the early going. Julia Thornton (1 for 3, RBI) got things going for East, working a one-out walk, and then Nicki Sudall reached on an error to make it first and second. Brooke Protesto (2 for 4, 2B, RBI) followed, and stroked a single to left. The Whippets threw home, too late to get Thornton, and then down to third in an attempt to get Sudall. But the ball sailed into left field, allowing Sudall to scamper home, and Protesto to make her way all the way to third.
“No, definitely not happy at all with the errors in the beginning of the game,” said West coach Joey Germani. “We can’t dig ourselves into those kinds of holes in Districts, or chances are we’ll be one and done. But I am very happy with the way the team responded and battled back for the win.”
West cut the lead with a run in the first, then took a lead with a big third. As she did in the first Meghan Sinkus (2 for 4, 2 R) used her speed to get things going with a base hit and a stolen base. Taylor Posner followed, and brought Sinkus home with a double. Back-to-back singles from Lizzie Kern and Morgan DeFreitas tied the game at 3-3, and put runners on first and second for Nicole Lioumis. Down to her last strike, Lioumis connected, ripping a bomb well past the fence in deepest center to put West up 6-3.
“I had two strikes on me, so the pressure was definitely on me,” said Lioumis. “I’m am just happy I was able to come through for my team. We’ve had some blow out wins, so it’s good for us to get the win in a tight-competitive game right before districts.”
After East battled back to within a run with two runs in the fourth on a fielder’s choice from Ashley Ponto and singles from Sydni Townsend and Thornton, Steph Alesandro made it a tie game in the fifth with a solo home run that skipped off the top of the fence in left center.
Though Protesto gave the Cougar’s hope in the top half of the seventh with a one-out double, she was left stranded, setting the stage for Weller’s heroics on the bottom half of the inning.
“I think we’re playing well as a team right now,” said Weller. “If we keep hitting the ball the way we have, and cut out the errors the way I know we can, I think we are more than ready for the playoffs.”
The Cougars, who remain in the hunt for a district berth, can take solace in the fact that they played a one-loss Whippets team, one of the top teams in the district, to the brink.
“Downingtown West is a great team, and they can hit,” said East coach Bill Williamson. “They can all hit, up and down the order. They got homers from their five and seven hitters. And we battled them to the final out.”
The Cougars won’t be an easy draw for anyone in the district. For now, they just have to keep pushing to win the next game, one game at a time.
“We played West tough both times this year, and we’ve had some big wins over good teams with good pitchers like West Chester East and Kennett,” said Williamson. “We just have to keep winning games, enough to get us into the playoffs and then we’ll see what we can do from there.”
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
D East 2 0 1 2 1 0 0 6 7 0
D West 1 0 5 0 0 0 1 7 13 4
Downingtown East
Player AB R H RBI
Robinson—SS 3 0 0 0
Kucera—PR 0 1 0 0
Thornton—RF 3 1 1 1
Sudall—C 4 1 1 1
Protesto—1B 4 0 2 2
Mattei—PR 0 0 0 0
Alessandro—3B 4 1 2 1
Ponto—LF 3 1 0 0
Townsend–DP 3 0 0 0
Romano—P 4 0 0 0
Schumann—2B 3 1 1 0
Roth—FX/CF 0 0 0 0
Totals 31 6 7 5
Downingtown West
Player AB R H RBI
Sinkus—CF 4 2 2 0
Posner—3B 4 1 1 1
Kern—RF 4 1 2 0
DeFreitas—1B 4 1 2 2
Weller—LF 4 1 1 1
Eliason—SS 3 0 1 0
Lioumis—C 3 1 1 3
Mendez—DP 3 0 2 0
Ahlborn—2B 3 0 1 0
Wright—P – – – –
Zettlemoyer–P – – – –
Totals 32 7 13 7 0 3
HR—Alessandro, Lioumis, Weller 2B—Protesto, Posner, DeFreitas, Mendez
Pitching
D East IP H R ER SO BB
Romano (L) 6.2 13 7 7 3 0
D West
Zettlemoyer 4.0 5 5 2 2 1
Wright (W) 3.0 2 1 1 1 0
