Solid pitching and big hits power Westfield Blue past Florham Park

Westfield Blue defeated Florham Park by the score of 14-3 in a North Jersey League game. The victory improved Westfield’s record to 15-5 overall and 9-1 in the North Jersey league where they remain tied with Summit for 1st place.

Westfield jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by Chris “Boots” Boutsikaris and 2 run single by Devin “The Animal” Anderson. Ethan Smith started the game on the mound for Westfield and pitched very well allowing 3 runs over 3 solid innings. Smith relied on his fastball, which seemed to have a little extra jump, and 7 of the 9 outs he recorded came on strikeouts. He was awarded a game ball for his efforts.

Westfield’s offense broke a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the 3rd inning when they sent 13 batters to the plate and scored 7 runs. Brett Robertshaw started the rally with a bunt single. Eric Varakian walked and shortly afterwards Robertshaw as gunned down at 3rd attempting to advance on a passed ball. Chris Rinaldi followed with a double to left field and Varakian advanced to 3rd Both were knocked in on a 2 run single up the middle by Nick Mele. Boots followed with a walk and then following a walk to Vin “Madman” Difilippo, Anderson knocked in Mele with a single to the outfield. Matt “Freight Train” Macik then worked a walk to load the bases and Hopper Murray followed with an RBI walk. Ethan Smith then belted a run scoring single and Scott Tupper followed with an RBI walk to round out the scoring in the inning.

The offense broke through for 4 more runs in the 5th inning on booming triples by Anderson and Robertshaw and singles by Murray and Chris Varano.

Westfield continued to get great pitching in the 2nd half of the game. Tupper relieved Smith and pitched 2 shut out innings. He struck out 2 batters and did not allow a hit. Hopper Murray pitched a scoreless 6th inning and struck out the final batter of the game to close it out. Smith picked up the victory and Tupper and Murray shared the save – it was the 2nd save of the season for each of them.

The defense was solid throughout the contest with solid catching from Difilippo, Robertshaw, Anderson and Varakian.

Next up is Warren tomorrow night (Wednesday, 6/11) in the Babe Ruth District tournament. Westfield must win to stay alive if it is to have a chance to make the tournament playoff round. The game will be played at Memorial Field in Scotch Plains and warm ups will start at 5:10pm. The boys will wear their blue uniforms.

PS...if any of the stats are wrong, I'll give you a clue on who is to blame -->>>>>>