Westfield Blue beats Cranford for 2nd time in 24 hours, 15-3

Westfield defeated a strong Cranford team by the score of 15-3 in a mercy rule shortened, Babe Ruth tournament contest. The game was Westfield 2nd victory over Cranford in two days and it pushed Westfield’s overall record to 13-3 and evened its Babe Ruth tournament record to 1-1.

Vincent “Madman” Difilippo took the hill for Westfield and threw 2 shutout innings for the win and Chris “Boots” Boutsikaris threw the last 2 innings to secure the save. Difilippo kept the Cranford hitters off balance by mixing in a sporadic change up to go along with his hard fastball. He struck out the side in the 2nd. Boots held the lead and was solid in relief, striking out 2 Cranford batters.

The offense staked Difilippo to an early 8-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning. Eric Varakian walked and with one out Nick Mele singled. After Boots was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Difilippo helped his own cause by driving a line drive single to center field to drive in Varakian. Matt “the Freight Train” Macik and Ethan Smith collected RBIs when they were walked and then Hopper Murray drove in two runs with a clutch single through the left side. Brett Robertshaw and Varakian walked and then Chris Rinaldi drove in a run with a single to left. Mele followed with an RBI single to left center to complete the 1st inning scoring.

Westfield added 3 more runs in the 2nd inning on an RBI single by Varakian and a two run double by Mele and then exploded for 4 additional runs in the bottom of the 3rd. Macik, Smith, Robertshaw and Varakian walked and Tupper and Mele hit the ball hard bringing in the additional runs.

The defense was strong again. In the 1st inning 2nd baseman Varakian made a fantastic running catch on a soft flyball to short center that looked like it would fall in for a hit. Later in the inning with runners on 1st and 3rd and two out, 3rd baseman Murray deflected a hard smash to the hot corner which shortstop Rinaldi fielded in the hole and quickly threw a missle to Boots at 1st base to record the final out of the inning and prevent a run from scoring. Scott Tupper made a great play at shortstop in the 3rd inning on a ball that took a terrible hop and hit Tupper in the chest. He recovered quickly, picked up the ball and made a strong throw to 1st to record the out. Mele made a nice play at 1st base when he fielded a hard shot and alertly went to 2nd base to get the lead runner. Mele and Robertshaw shared the catching duties and were solid behind the plate.

Next up is Scotch Plains in the Babe Ruth tournament in Scotch Plains. The game is at 2pm and warm ups with start at 1pm. The boys will wear their blue jerseys.