Westfield Blue defeats South Orange Maplewood in Babe Ruth Tournament

Westfield stayed alive in the Babe Ruth Tournament with a 12-2, 5-inning mercy rule shortened victory against a solid South Orange Maplewood team. The victory puts Westfield at 2-2 in the Babe Ruth Tournament and 16-5 overall and it puts them in a position to advance to the District playoffs on Saturday with a win against Warren tomorrow evening.

Nick Mele started for Westfield and pitched 3 scoreless innings to set the tone for the game. Chris Rinaldi pitched the last two innings for Westfield and struggled some with his control, but he kept the damage to a minimum holding South Orange Maplewood to 2 runs.

The defense was strong behind both pitchers and heads up defense and solid execution in the field helped keep South Orange Maplewood off of the board early. In the 1st inning South Orange Maplewood attempted to send a runner home on a ground ball to short with one out. Shortstop Rinaldi charged the ball and threw a strike to catcher Vin “Madman” Difilippo who made a nice tag to record the out at the plate. In the 2nd inning with runners on the corners, South Orange Maplewood attempted a 1st and 3rd play but Westfield picked off the runner on 3rd base for the 2nd out of the inning. In the 3rd inning, Mele threw to Eric Varakian at 2nd to nail a South Orange Maplewood runner who strayed to far of the bag. Also in the 3rd inning with runners on 1st and 2nd, shortstop Rinaldi charged a slow roller, fielded it bare handed and threw a strike to a stretching Chris “Boots” Boutsikaris at first for a key out. Varakian made a couple of key plays at 2nd base and Difilippo was strong behind the plate and kept the South Orange Maplewood running game in check.

The offense was explosive for the 2nd game in a row and production occurred up and down the lineup. Varakian was 4 for 4 from the lead off spot with an RBI and 2 runs scored and Nick Mele went 3 for 4 with a double and 4 RBIs. Devin “the Animal” Anderson continued his hot hitting, going 2 for 2 with an RBI (Anderson is now 5 for his last 5) and Chris “Mariano” Varano was 1 for 1 with a hard hit single to left. Brett Robertshaw scored a run and drove one in with a sac fly and Rinaldi had a hit and 2 RBIs. Difilippo hit the ball hard in 3 of his 4 at bats and ended the game with a walk off RBI single.

Next up is Warren on Friday at 6pm in the Babe Ruth Tournament. The game will be held at Memorial Field in Scotch Plains and warm ups with start at 5:10pm. The winner will advance to the District Semi-finals and play South Orange Maplewood on Saturday morning at 10am. The boys will wear their blue jerseys to the remaining Babe Ruth Tournament games.