Westfield’s Haleigh Dellow is tagged out stealing second by Friendship/Scio shortstop Kadence Donohue during the NYSPHSAA Class D Far West Regional at Gowanda High School on Friday. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

GOWANDA — If the name Nevaeh Ross was never uttered again in the town of Westfield, that would be just fine with the Wolverines.

For the second straight season, the Friendship/Scio right-hander ended their softball season.

Ross threw a disputed one-hitter with 14 strikeouts and also hit a solo home run as the Golden Eagles won their second straight New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D Far West Regional with a 3-0 win over Westfield on Friday at Gowanda High School.

“I just think when a pitcher has a riseball, it really is a difference maker. It’s hard to stay off it. It’s hard to time it,” Westfield head coach Shawn Gnadzinski said. “You can move to the front and try to take it away or you can move to the back and try to see it, but it’s just a tough pitch. That riseball is something we’ve had a problem with for years.”

Next up for Friendship/Scio, which lost to Section IV champion Deposit/Hancock in the state semifinals last year, is a return trip to Long Island and the Moriches Athletic Complex.

“This was our biggest goal and we knew our biggest feat to overcome was Westfield. We knew that from the beginning of the season,” Friendship/Scio head coach Deb Warner said. “We knew if we got this far, Westfield would be the one to possibly knock us out.”

For the Wolverines, their season comes to an end after winning their second straight Section VI title and fifth in program history.

“Last year, we didn’t play well and lost. It was hard for me. This time, I’m really proud of the girls,” an emotional Gnadzinski said. “I’m going to enjoy the season and not take it the other way and be sad about it.”

Also coming to an end is the decorated career of senior right-hander Haleigh Dellow, the two-time Post-Journal/OBSERVER Player of the Year, who will take her talents to George Mason University in the fall.

“We’re losing a great player and a great kid,” Gnadzinski added. “She’s been a leader. It’s going to be hard.”

A pitchers’ duel Friday turned in the top of the fourth inning. Ross was grazed on the helmet by a pitch to open the frame before Katie Lamberson bunted up the first-base line. Westfield catcher Sydney Hotchkiss threw out Lamberson at first base, but Ross went all the way to third on the play, which resulted in an injury to Wolverines left fielder Drew Ernewein when Ross slid into third base where she was covering.

“That’s Nevaeh’s mentality. She knows they’re coming in and if there’s nobody covering third, she’s taking it,” Warner said. “That’s smart base running. Not every player looks for that. … She’s been doing it for a long time.”

After a lengthy delay, Morghyn Ross bunted and made contact with the ball, but it was deemed she was still in the batter’s box so a foul ball was the ruling. Later in the at-bat, she hit a long double to center field that plated her sister with the first run of the game. Following a strikeout, Kiara Grover hit a long RBI single to right field that was just out of the reach of Westfield’s Madyson Burgess.

“We’re a great team, they’re a great team. They were just able to put the ball in play a little bit more and create some runs,” Gnadzinski said. “We weren’t able to get our bunts down or get two hits in a row.”

The 2-0 was plenty for Nevaeh Ross, who struck out two in the first, third and fourth innings while striking out the side in the second and sixth innings.

“That’s a good team over there. I’m not taking anything away from them,” Gnadzinski said. “If we don’t score, we don’t win. We’ve played 14 innings against that pitcher and we haven’t scored a run.”

The Wolverines’ lone hit came from Dellow, who led off the game with a bouncing ball past third base that was bobbled deep in the hole at shortstop.

“We knew about the hitters from last year,” Warner said, “and we knew their pitcher was a hitter and stole a couple of bases on us last year.”

Nevaeh Ross added the punctuation mark on the game in the top of the sixth inning when she powered a Dellow pitch deep over the center-field fence to make it 3-0.

Westfield’s first two batters of the seventh inning popped up to the infield before Ross finished the game with her 14th strikeout to send her team back to the state semifinals.

“We want to win them both,” Warner said of the potential for a semifinal and a title game next weekend, “but from Day 1, we’ve taken it one day at a time and one inning at a time.”

NOTES: Friendship/Scio will take on the winner of today’s game between Section X Edwards-Knox and Section III Poland in one 1 p.m. semifinal next Friday on Long Island. The other semifinal will feature Deposit/Hancock or Section IX Eldred against Section VII Bolton/Schroon Lake or Section II Salem. Saturday’s title game will be played at 11:30 a.m.