Westfield Stuns SOM With 4 in the Bottom of the 6th

Westfield found themselves trailing a tough South Orange Maplewood (SOM) team by the score of 3-0 coming into their final at bat in the bottom of the 6th. White responded with fireworks and scored 4 times to take the District game and to advance into the District semi-finals.

Vin Difilippo held SOM in check with spectacular pitching. Over 3 innings, Difilippo held SOM to 2 hits and no walks. Nick Mele erased one of those base runners on an attempted steal in the 1st inning when he delivered a bullet to Chris Rinaldi at 2nd base. Westfield's offense could not muster much against a tough left hander from South Orange Maplewood. White only managed 2 hits and 5 total base runners through 5 innings and 3 of those base runners were taken out on the base paths. 2 were picked off of 1st base by his deceptive move and the 3rd was Hopper Murray who was gunned down at the plate attempting to tag from 3rd on a fly ball to left field. Murray made a great slide at the plate and the incidental contact sent dislodged the ball from the SOM catcher's glove, but the umpire ruled that Hopper was out for not avoiding contact. The collision at the plate was one of several plays involving heavy contact early in the game. Chris Boutsikaris and a SOM runner had a huge collision at 1st base in the 2nd inning. Boutsikaris held onto the ball despite the tremendous impact.

Chris Rinaldi came onto to pitch the 4th and SOM managed a run on two hits to take a 1-0 lead. The run was almost prevented on a great diving attempt of a sinking liner by center fielder Scott Tupper but the ball popped out of his glove when he hit the ground. Rinaldi ran into more trouble in the 5th as SOM loaded the bases and scored twice to take a 3-0 lead. Vin Difilippo made an unbelievable diving back hand stab of an errant throw to the plate to keep the deficit at 3.

Down 3-0 going into the bottom of the 6th, the team got together before they began the inning and Coach Rinaldi reminded the team of a bigger hole that they had climbed out of almost a year ago to the date when they rallied from 5 down to defeat a pesky Bayonne team. With 1 out the fireworks began. Rinaldi hammered a pitch into the left center field gap for a double. He score two pitches later when Difilippo blasted a line drive in that same left center field gap for an RBI double. Nick Mele then BLASTED a shot to deep right center field that rolled all the way onto the adjoining field for two run home run to tie the game. The Westfield faithful were screaming loudly when Devin Anderson kept the rally going with a single to right field. He stole 2nd and advanced to 3rd on a Boutsikaris ground out. Robertshaw walked and quickly stole 2nd to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. Tommy Summers then came to the plate and after a brief discussion with Coach Rinaldi at 3rd, Summers pounded a line drive down the left field line for a walk off single and Westfield White mobbed him as he came off the field. It was a remarkable comeback and a memorable game for all involved.

With the win, Westfield advances to the District semi-final game. Its opponent will be either Cranford, Warren or SOM on Sunday morning at 10 AM in Warren.

Westfield White has a league game against Scotch Plains on Friday at 6 PM at Tamaques #5.