Mariano and Wheels Power Westfield Past Cranford 4-2

Westfield White rallied for two runs in the bottom of the 5th to break a 2-2 tie and held on to defeat Cranford by the score of 4-2. White got strong pitching from Michale Mobarakai, Eric Varakian and Chris Rinaldi and the defense came up with some solid plays behind them. Mobarakai got things off to a good start with a strikeout of the 1st batter and he went on to hold Cranford to 1 run over 3 innings pitched. Varakian relieved “Mobi” and kept the Cranford hitters off balance by changing speeds, locating his pitches and mixing in his deadly knuckle curve ball. Varakian allowed one unearned run in 2 innings, limiting Cranford to only 2 hits. Rinaldi pitched the sixth and used a good pick off move to nail a Cranford runner at 2nd base.

Westfield’s offense jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the 1st with a 2 out rally. Vin Difilippo got things started with a walk and then Nick Mele followed with a single. Devin Anderson singled in Difilippo with a hard RBI ground ball through the left hand side of the infield and Chris Boutsikaris followed with a line single to knock in Mele. Westfield did not score again until the bottom of the 5th.

In the 5th, Chris Varano jump started the offense with a clutch hit and text book base running. His blistering line drive single to right put a runner on 1st with no one out. Varano immediately stole 2nd base and then advanced to 3rd when Mobarakai grounded out to 2nd base. Tommy “Wheels” Summers came to the plate with two outs and Varano on 3rd. Wheels caught everyone by surprise by dropping a picture perfect bunt down the 1st base line. The Cranford pitcher made a nice play to field the bunt, but he could not get the speedy Summers at 1st. Varano was running on contact and scored easily from 3rd to give Westfield a 3-2 lead. Summers was not done though and he stole 2nd to get into scoring position. Varakian then hammered a 2-0 offering to deep right center field for an RBI single to put Westfield ahead 4-2. Westfield held Cranford in the 6th for the win.

Westfield plays Warren 11U on Wednesday, July 1st in a NJASBL game in Warren (6 PM on M2).