Westfield White opened Central Jersey Baseball league play with a 9-6 win over a tough Warren squad. Warren recently won the CJABL Spring championship and they traveled to Westfield with a slightly revamped, larger line up.
Vin Difilippo took the mound for Westfield and was quickly greeted with a towering home run to left center field by the Warren lead off batter. Difilippo was unfazed though and did not let that rattle him. He quickly settled in and threw 3 innings of 2 hit ball, holding Warren to a single run.
Westfield came to bat in the 1st inning trailing 1-0. Eric Varakian led off with a walk and Chris Varano followed with a single. Both stole bases on a double steal putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Difilippo followed with a line drive, 2 run triple down the right field line to put Westfield in the lead 2-1. Westfield continued the scoring in the 2nd. Liam Heinbokel led off with a long single off of the fence in left center field and then Hopper Murray was hit by a pitch. Following a double steal, Scott Tupper, Brett Robertshaw and Michael Mobarakai knocked runs in by putting the ball play and those key at bats put Westfield ahead 5-1 after 2 innings. Westfield added a 6th run in the 3rd when Chris Varano who walked and stole 2nd and 3rd later came home to score on a passed ball.
Scott Tupper relieved Difilippo on the mound and he kept the strong Warren line up off balance. Unfortunately the Westfield defense made a couple of mistakes in the 4th and Warren capitalized to put 2 runs on the board to close Westfield's lead to 6-3.
Westfield got one back in the bottom of the 4th when Liam Heinbokel led off with a walk and later came around to score on a clutch RBI single by Tupper to make it 7-3. Warren would not go quietly though and they scored 1 in the 5th with a long home run by the #8 hitter to make it a 3 run game.
Coming to bat in the bottom of the 5th Westfield looked to extend their lead and give themselves some breathing room. Eric Varakian got things started with a walk and a couple of stolen bases. Nick Mele then blasted a 2-1 offering into the right center field gap for an RBI single. Mele stole 2nd and then scored on a 2 out RBI single by Difilippo, making it 9-4 Westfield.
Warren began to rally in the 6th and they scored 2 runs to make it 9-6 before Tupper closed things out with crafty pitching and a great defensive play on the mound.
Difilippo and Tupper each had 2 RBIs and both were awarded blue balls (award for great defensive plays) as a result of tremendous fielding efforts on the mound.
Next Up: Practice at 5 PM at G3 on Monday night and then Westfield White travels to Long Hill on Tuesday night.
Not mentioned in the article was the debut of Westfield's new sparkling white uniforms and the team's new rally cry, "We got bleach!"
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