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A perfect night for baseball saw Freedom (South Riding) travel to No. 20 Westfield to make up a non-District game that had been postponed earlier this month. Both teams have multiple important District games coming up this week and tried to save pitching by avoiding their more veteran starters, and it was ultimately Freedom's pitching depth that performed better, leading the Eagles to a 19-3 win.

Freedom started sophomore righty Connor Kolarov and Westfield sent out freshman righty Jason Cheifetz, both of whom have thrown some quality innings in spot duty in rotations that feature upperclassmen. Freedom wasted no time getting to Cheifetz, as Ben Williamson (William & Mary)  led the game off with a single to center and Drew Caroline (CNU) homered to left to open the scoring. Freedom tacked on two more runs before the inning ended and led 4-0 after the top of the first.

In the bottom of the first, Westfield answered immediately as sophomore Nick Lottchea lined a 3-2 pitch off the leftfield fence for a leadoff double and he was driven in by a Travis Blee double to right center. Kolarov, with the help of a pickoff by Freedom catcher Caroline at second, was able to escape the inning with no further damage and the score was Freedom 4, Westfield 1, after 1.

Westfield opened the second inning by going to the pen and a theme that would be carried throughout the rest of the game took shape as the Bulldogs' pitchers struggling to find the strike zone. Freedom scored 5 runs in the second inning while getting just one hit in the inning. The Eagles would end up working 17 walks total, with 16 coming in the second, third, and fourth innings as Freedom opened up a big lead that they would not surrender.

The Bulldogs did keep fighting and scored single runs in the second and third innings off of Kolarov. Lottchea drove in a run in the second inning on an RBI groundout and Danny Leo had an RBI single in the third. Williamson threw the last two innings for the Eagles and struck out five in a pair of hitless frames.

For Freedom, Kolarov went 3 IP, 3 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 4 K. Williamson went 2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 5 K and was 1-1 with 4 BBs and 3 SBs at the plate. Caroline was 1-1 with a home run, 3 RBIs, and 3 BBs. Casey Cook (North Carolina) was 1-3 with an RBI and 2 BBs. Josh Lui was 1-1 with a BB and 3 RBIs. Zach Hoenig was 1-1 with 2 BBs and 3 RBIs.

For Westfield, Lottchea was 1-2 with a 2B and an RBI. Blee was 1-2 with 2B and an RBI. Leo was 2-2 with an RBI.