Westfield's season ends with loss to Branchburg

Westfield lost to Branchburg by the score of 15-3 in the semi-final round of the North Jersey playoffs. The loss ended their hopes for a shot at the league title. The loss puts Westfield’s final record at 19-7 overall and 12-2 in North Jersey league play.

Westfield played well early and led 2-0 after 1 inning and 3-2 after 2 innings. Vin “Madman” Difilippo turned in a very gutsy pitching performance, going 3 strong innings despite taking a line drive off of his shin in the 1st inning. Madman was down but not out after getting drilled with the hard liner and he quickly bounced back and held Branchburg scoreless in the 1st. Westfield took a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning after they loaded the bases and proceeded to get RBI walks from Vin Difilippo and Scott Tupper. Branchburg got 1 run back in the top of the 2nd, but Difilippo worked hard to prevent further damage, despite 2 Westfield errors in the inning.

The turning point of the game came in the bottom of the 2nd inning. The inning began very promising for Westfield when they quickly loaded the bases and scored a run on an RBI walk by Matt Macik. With the bases loaded and no one out, lead off hitter Eric Varakian hit a hard ground ball back to the pitcher who threw home for the out at the plate. The Branchburg catcher then immediately threw to 3rd and got the force out on Chris “Mariano” Varano who was running from 2nd base. The next hitter popped out to the catcher and the Westfield opportunity had evaporated just as quickly as it had come together. Branchburg immediately capitalized by scoring 4 runs in the top of the 3rd to take a 6-3 lead. Branchburg scored their runs with a couple of timely hits after the first 2 batters reached on infield errors.

Nick Mele relieved Difilippo in the 4th inning and threw a scoreless inning to keep Westfield within striking distance. The offense struggled though and Westfield was only able to manage 2 base runners after the 2nd inning – both singles by Nick Mele. Branchburg blew the game open in the 5th on 2 hits, 5 walks and an error. Chris "Boots" Boutsikaris relieved Mele in the 5th and shut down the Branchburg rally. Ethan "Smiley" Smith pitched the 6th inning for Westfield.

Next up is the TV36 interview tomorrow (Saturday) at 9:45 at Gumbert #1. The boys will wear their blue jerseys.