Westfield defeats New Providence 12-3

Westfield’s offense came alive early and often tonight in a 12-3 win over New Providence. Scott Tupper, Ethan Smith and Brett Robertshaw each contributed 2 solid innings of pitching, combining to collect 6 strikeouts. Robertshaw was awarded the save. The defense played very strong behind them with Chris Varano demonstrating excellent range at 2nd base on a couple of difficult grounders and Brett Robertshaw throwing a dart from behind the plate to Scott Tupper at shortstop to nail a New Providence player attempting to steal.

Westfield got a scare in the 4th when shortstop Scott Tupper caught a very bad hop on a hard hit ground ball. Tupper was attempting to stay down on the ball when it took a “Gumbert hop” and came up and hit him in the chin. Tupper who was knocked to the ground on the play and who was left with an imprint of baseball stitching on his chin demonstrated his toughness when he immediately bounced back up to get back into the play.

The entire team put forth a very strong offensive performance. Eric Varakian (2 for 4 with a triple and 2 runs scored), Chris Rinaldi (2 for 2 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs), Nick Mele (3 for 3 with 2 triples, 3 runs scored and 3 RBIs), Boots (2 for 2 with an RBI), Deven Anderson (2 RBIs), Hopper Murray (double and an RBI), Chris Varano (2 for 2 with a double, a run scored and an RBI). Matthew Macik and Tupper also added singles.

Next up is Scotch Plains on Saturday at 12:30PM in the Cranford Tournament – we will wear blue.