Westfield defeats Scotch Plains 3-1 in Cranford Tourney

The boys faced one of their toughest challenges of the year as they went up against Scotch Plains in the Cranford tournament. Westfield combined strong pitching, solid defense and opportunistic base running to defeat Scotch Plains 3-1. The win places Westfield at 7-1 on the year and 3-0 in the Cranford tournament.

Scotch Plains jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning on three walks and a base hit, however Nick Mele quickly settled in and found his zone and he proceeded to strike out 3 consecutive Scotch Plains batters to end the threat. Mele struck out the 1st two hitters in the 2nd inning before allowing a two out walk. On a 2-0 pitch to the next batter, the Scotch Plains runner on 1st base attempted to steal 2nd, but he was gunned down by Eric Varakian who fired a strike to Chris Rinaldi to end the inning. Varakian shot down another Scotch Plains runner attempting steal in the 3rd inning, firing another laser to Rinaldi who applied the tag. Mele left the game at the end of the 3rd inning and was replaced in the lineup by Matt Macik and on the mound by Rinaldi.

The Westfield offense scored all of it’s runs in the 4th inning. Rinaldi led off the inning with a walk and Macik immediately followed with a hard single to right field. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Westfield attempted a double steal. The throw to 3rd to get the lead runner was off target and went into left field and all the way to the fence. Rinaldi scored easily and heads up base running by Macik allowed him to score all the way from first. Chris “Boots” Boustikaris kept the offense going with a single and Devin Anderson followed with a hard hit ball to the left side that the Scotch Plains 3rd baseman fielded and fired to second to retire Boots. With Brett Robertshaw at the plate, Anderson attempted to steal 2nd on a ball that started to get away from the catcher. The catcher’s throw to 2nd sailed high into center field and all the way to the fence. Anderson turned on the after burners and scored on the play to make it 3-1 and it stayed that way for the rest of the way.

Westfield played very solid defense in the game and there were a few plays that deserve mention. With two outs and the bases loaded in the 4th, Rinaldi knocked down a hard grounder back to the mound and when he recovered, his only play was at 3rd base. He threw to Brett Robertshaw who made a heads up play covering the bag and the final out was recorded at 3rd. Macik made a long run in left field to catch a difficult fly ball in the 5th and Hopper Murray snared a very hard hit liner at 2nd base to prevent a run from scoring in the 5th.

Scott Tupper was the first Westfield batter to reach base safely, when he singled in the 3rd inning.

Next up -- on Sunday we play Hazlet in the Cranford tournament at 10:30AM and Union at 2:30PM (Gumbert #3) in North Jersey league play. The boys will wear blue jerseys in both games.