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Rivals West Springfield and Lake Braddock faced off for the fifth time this spring at Deep Run HS in the second Class 6 State semifinal. Braddock had won the first three meetings but the Spartans won the Region C Championship game last week. Braddock would jump out early, but then it would be all West Springfield the rest of the way as the Spartans won by a score of 6-2 and advanced.

In the top of the first, Spartan starter Calvin Pastel (Shenandoah) struck out the first two hitters of the game before allowing singles to Matt Thomas (William & Mary) and Lyle Miller-Green (Virginia Tech). The Bruins continued the two out rally with RBI singles from Jack Darcy and Peter Buschman. Pastel was able to stop the threat as the Bruins left the bases loaded and a 2-0 lead after the top of the first.

Pastel led the bottom of the first off with a single and after an error on a sacrifice attempt, West Springfield had runners on the corners with no outs. A safety squeeze by Nick Johnson brought in one run, but Lyons would be thrown out at third trying to advance on a fly ball to end the first inning with Lake Braddock leading 2-1.

Pastel threw a perfect second and faced the minimum in the top of the third. Lake Braddock starter Connor Glynn allowed a leadoff single but had a scoreless second inning of his own.

In the bottom of the third, Pastel started things by reaching on a one-out infield single. He advanced to second on a groundout and scored the tying run when Johnson singled to left. Brett Stallings (Frederick CC) gave West Springfield the lead with a double to deep left. Stallings would score another run on an error after the Bruins made a pitching change and after three innings West Springfield lead 4-2.

In the top of the fourth, Pastel continued to cruise, getting three groundouts around a two-out single to put up another scoreless inning. In the bottom of the fourth, Braddock brought in Miller-Green to pitch with two outs and a runner on. He issued a walk to Jared Lyons (George Mason), and then got Johnson to sky a routine fly ball to center, but the ball was misplayed, allowing two runs to score and stretching the Spartan lead to 6-2.

Pastel continued his dominance through the sixth inning, when he would exit the game, Kyle Martin was brought in to throw the seventh and he fired a scoreless inning while working around a lone walk.

For Lake Braddock, Miller-Green went 2.1 IP, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 H, 1 K and was 1-3 at the plate. Darcy was 1-3 with an RBI and Buschman was 1-3 with an RBI.

For West Springfield, Pastel was the winning pitcher with 6 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 3 BB, 6 K while also going 2-4 at the plate. Johnson was 1-2 with 2 RBIs. Stallings was 1-3 with a 2B. Alec Reilly was 2-3.

 

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