Westfield opened up District play in strong fashion with a near flawless 13-3 win over Warren 11U. White received very strong pitching, timely defense and explosive hitting in the game which was called after 5 innings due to the tournament’s 10 run rule.
Westfield jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning when Eric Varakian who led off with a walk and came around to score on a RBI double by Vin Difilippo. The lead was short lived though as Warren countered with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the 2nd inning to make it a 2-1 game.
Westfield scored 10 times in the top of the 3rd to break the game open. The inning opened with Rinaldi leading off with a single and Difilippo following with a walk. Mele then blasted an RBI double that brought Rinaldi home. Devin Anderson followed with an RBI single to score Difilippo but Mele was thrown out at the plate after the 3rd base coach made an ill advised decision to send him home. Chris Boutsikaris then doubled home Anderson to make it 4-2 Westfield. Hopper Murray and Chris Varano walked to load the bases and then Scott Tupper came up with a huge 2 RBI single to knock in Boutsikaris and Anderson. Varano advanced to 3rd on the throw home and scored on an RBI sac fly by Varakian. Rinaldi and Difilippo repeated their performances from earlier in the inning with a single and walk, respectively. Mele then singled home Rinaldi for the 3rd RBI of the inning and following a walk to Anderson, Boutsikaris added his 3rd RBI of the game with another single.
Westfield added a couple of additional runs in the 5th on singles by Boutsikaris, Brett Robertshaw and Michael Mobarakai (RBI).
Westfield pitchers Difilippo and Boutsikaris held Warren to 3 runs over 5 innings. Difilippo did not walk a batter and scattered 6 hits over 3 strong innings and Boutsikaris allowed only 1 hit over the final two innings to secure the win. Westfield flashed the leather a couple of times in the bottom of the 5th inning to rob Warren of two hits. Varakian started the defensive demonstration when he ranged all the way up the middle to field a ground ball that had deflected off of Boutsikaris’ glove and after grabbing the had smash, he made a strong throw to Mele at 1st for the out. With a runner on first and 2 outs, Rinaldi made a great backhand stab deep in the hole at short and spun backwards and threw to Varakian for the force out at 2nd base to end the game.
Mele, Rinaldi and Boutsikaris each had 3 hits and Tupper had 2 singles. Two of Mele's 3 hits were doubles and Mele and Boutsikaris each had 3 RBIs.
Westfield plays Cranford on Tuesday, June 30th in NJABSL league play and their next District game is on Thursday, July 2nd against last year’s District runner-up, South Orange Maplewood.
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