Westfield Blue sneaks past Westfield White in extra innings classic

The two Westfield 9u teams played a solid baseball game tonight which required extra innings to decide the outcome. Westfield Blue scored 4 times in the top of the 7th to break a 2-2 tie and their pitching and defense held Westfield White in their half of the 7th to secure the victory. Westfield Blue improves to 14-5 with the victory and 8-1 in North Jersey League play.

Both teams got exceptional pitching throughout the contest. Rowan Oberman started for the White team and threw 3 stellar shutout innings allowing only one batter to reach base. Chris “Boots” Boutsikaris was equally impressive for Westfield Blue, allowing only 1 run through his 3 innings of work. Boots got some help from center fielder Scott Tupper who tracked down 2 very well hit balls to deep center field. The first of the two catches was a running grab to left center that would have allowed at least 2 runs to score had it fallen in.

Justin Lin pitched the next 3 innings for the White team and was very solid, allowing only 3 hits and 2 runs during his work. Both runs were scored in the 4th inning. The first was scored by Brett Robertshaw who walked, stole 2nd and was singled home by Eric Varakian. Varakian was thrown out a pitch later on an attempted delayed steal. The next batter, Chris Rinaldi, hit a deep line drive to the gap in left center and hustled around the bases, narrowly avoiding the relay throw at the plate to score the 2nd run of the inning. The throw was up the line and catcher Will Stern, who had come up the line to field the throw, collided violently with Rinaldi. Rinaldi then crossed the plate as the ball rolled to the backstop. Both players got up, Stern smiling, and play resumed with Westfield Blue leading 2-1.

Chris “Mariano” Varano relieved Boots and pitched 2 shutout innings and allowed only one hit. Mariano was helped by Tupper’s 2nd defense gem of the game in the 4th inning when Scott robbed Parker Hess of an extra base hit for the 2nd time in the game. Vin “Madman” Difilippo relieved Mariano and took the mound in the bottom of the 6th with a 2-1 lead. Westfield White battled hard and Tyler Roth who had started the inning with a lead off single, tied the score with one out in the inning. With the bases loaded, one out and the winning run 60 feet away at 3rd base, Madman locked in and struck out the next two batters to end the threat.

Westfield Blue scored 4 times in the top of the 7th inning to take a 6-2 lead. Scott Tupper led off with a single and Brett Robertshaw followed with a single, but Tupper was thrown out trying to advance to 3rd on the play. Varakian was hit by a pitch and Rinaldi walked forcing a bases loaded one out situation with Nick Mele due to bat. Mele promptly singled in a run and Boots’ hard hit grounder forced in another run. Difilippo then came up and pounded a 2 run double to extend the lead. Difilippo pitched a strong 7th to close out the contest.

Next up is Florham Park tomorrow night (Tuesday, 6/10) at Gumbert #3 at 6pm. Warm ups start at 5:15 and the boys will wear their blue jerseys.