Luckily for the Westfield head coach, his top-seeded Wolverines remained calm.

Westfield batted around to score five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and held No. 5 Clymer/Sherman off the board during the Wolves’ final inning en route to a 5-1 victory at Westfield Academy & Central School.

“I felt that they had nothing to lose and we had everything to lose,” Gnadzinski said postgame. “It’s the first time that I feel like we were the favorites. I liked being the underdog when we were surprising everybody. Now that we don’t have that, there was a lot of pressure on me. Was I getting them ready properly and giving them everything to be prepared for this?”

The win sends the Wolverines, the second-ranked Class D team in the state according to the New York State Sportswriters Association, into Tuesday’s 7 p.m. championship game at Allegany-Limestone against No. 3 Ellicottville, which beat No. 2 North Collins 4-3 in Wednesday’s other semifinal.

Clymer/Sherman pitcher Ellie Bodamer fields a groundball during Wednesday's Class D semifinal. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

For a while in Westfield, it looked like it might be Clymer/Sherman playing for a title.

Wolves eighth-grader Ellie Bodamer kept the Wolverines at bay for five innings, scattering four hits while striking out two, but Westfield’s bats came up big in the sixth.

“When we played them at Fredonia State, she pitched and we beat them 4-0. She looked broken,” Gnadzinski said. “When I saw that, I knew this game she would be ready for us. For an eighth-grader, I was super impressed … really, really solid kid.”

Madyson Burgess led off the sixth with a hard grounder to short that was thrown away for a two-base error. Sydney Hotchkiss followed with a sacrifice bunt. Casey Black bunted and the Wolves elected to give her first base while keeping Burgess at third. After a stolen base, Mackenzie Schumaker hit an RBI groundout to tie the game.

“We’re looking for belt-high fastballs. Our girls were chasing,” Gnadzinski said. “They finally waited for that fastball down the middle and were able to shake things up a little bit.”

Clymer/Sherman third baseman Kaitlyn Lindsey tags out Westfield's Casey Black during Wednesday's semifinal game. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

No. 8 hitter Keara Kincaid then hit an RBI double to the fence in right-center field to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead.

“I actually pinch-hit for her the inning prior and I could tell that upset her a little bit,” Gnadzinski said. “She hit that ball to right-center and showed me I probably shouldn’t have pinch-hit for her.”

Brynn Ernewein followed with a bloop RBI double to left field and Haleigh Dellow hit a hard grounder through the left side of the infield that rolled all the way to the fence for an RBI triple to break the game open.

“All of her at-bats seemed to be pretty quality at-bats,” Gnadzinski said of Dellow. “She knows they are going to try and throw around her. I think seeing more pitches, she finally got a fastball to drive.”

Eva Gnadzinski capped the inning with an RBI single to make it 5-1.

Dellow struck out the first two batters of the top of the seventh inning — her 15th and 16th strikeouts of the game — before hitting leadoff batter Janelle Burchanowski for the second time. But Gnadzinski fielded a groundball to second and threw to first for the final out of the game.

“It’s a great group of kids,” Clymer/Sherman head coach Frank Lewczyk said. “We just came up a wee bit short today.”

Clymer/Sherman stranded two runners in the first inning and another in the second before breaking through against Dellow in the fourth. Kaitlyn Lindsey worked a walk to open the frame and stole second. After a strikeout, Karlen Honey’s spinning pop-up fell in front of Dellow for a single. Another stolen base put runners at second and third before Hayden Fisher laid down a sacrifice bunt to plate Lindsey with the first run of the game.

“These kids are ungodly good at what they do. For six innings, we were doing well,” Lewczyk said. “Taking a combined program two years — a sectional title one year and within an eyelash of a sectional final this year — I have nothing but pride.”

Honey ended up at second and Fisher at first on the play, but Dellow got out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts.

“She’s good. We tried to stay super disciplined today and put good swings on good pitches,” Lewczyk said of the approach against Dellow. “She got us a few more times than we would’ve liked. The effort was there.”

Westfield had runners on in every inning, but the Wolves’ defense kept the shutout intact.

Bodamer fielded a sacrifice bunt cleanly and struck out two batters in the first inning; Mikala Einink caught a fly ball and threw to third for a double play in the second inning; and Burchanowski, the shortstop, was in on a pair of outs in the third inning for Clymer/Sherman.

“Our outfield has been stellar all year,” Lewczyk said. “Mikala Einink in center, every game it seems like she’s coming up with something.”

The Wolverines stranded another runner in the fourth and two in the fifth before finally breaking through in the sixth.

NOTES: Dellow reached base four times with two walks, a single and a triple; Gnadzinski doubled and singled; Black singled twice; and Drew Ernewein singled and doubled for Westfield. … Honey and Burchanowski had the lone hits for Clymer/Sherman. … Dellow walked three and Bodamer walked two.