The Westfield team coached by Joe Rinaldi (aka The Cardiac Kids) won the Knights of Columbus Memorial Day Weekend Tournament in Westfield yesterday in stunning fashion.
After winning their first 4 games in the tournament by a combined score of 34-4 Friday night through Sunday, they faced a solid team from Greenbrook in a rematch yesterday, this time with the championship on the line.
Westfield had handled Greenbrook in a suprisingly easy 10-0 win in the front end of a doubleheader on Sunday. But Monday was a completely different story.
The Blue Devils jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, including a booming 2-run blast over the left centerfield fence by Chris Varano. After this early attack, however, Greenbrook's tall, lanky lefty settled in and quieted Westfield's bats for the next 4 frames, effectively changing speeds and keeping the Blue Devils off balance.
Westfield's starting pitcher, Hopper Murray, also kept Greenbrook's bats in check, yielding only 1 unearned run over the first 3 innings. The Blue Devil defense made some sharp plays in the field as well. Brett Robertshaw, playing third base, made a nice running catch of a pop up in foul territory. With runners at the corners, Murray and Chris Boutsikaris executed a nifty pickoff play to nab a Greenbrook runner who strayed too far from first base after Murray faked a pickoff toss to third base.
Beginning in the 4th inning, Greenbrook's offense came alive, scoring 9 unanswered runs over the next two frames. With its lefty still on the mound throwing strikes, the game entered the bottom of the 6th with Greenbrook holding a commanding, and seemingly insurmountable, 9-4 lead.
Despite the lopsided score, this team showed again that they are not familiar with the word "surrender."
Scott Tupper led off with a walk after working the count full. A steal of second by Tupper and infield hit by J Mack Rembisz put runners at the corners with no outs. Greenbrook's lefty kept his poise and courageously struck out the next 2 Blue Devils. Leadoff hitter Eric Varakian battled his way on base with a walk after a 9-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off 3 tough pitches with the count full.
With the bases jammed, Varano stepped into the box and crushed a fastball, this time into the leftcenter gap, for a 2 RBI ground-rule double to narrow the deficit to 9-6. Chris Rinaldi earned his way on base with yet another walk, also working the count full, to re-load the bases.
Greenbrook's lefty appeared to be running out of gas (his pitch count at that point was slmost certainly north of 100) but he was left on the hill to face the next Westfield batter, Mike Friel. In another great 10-pitch at-bat, Friel worked the count full, then fouled off four straight pitches before stroking a liner into the rightcenter gap, plating both Varakian and Varano, and moving the tying run represented by Rinaldi to third. Friel's 2 RBI double made the score 9-8.
Devin Anderson, hitting clean-up, was due to bat next with the tying and winning runs on base, when mercifully, the Greenbrook coaches changed hurlers. On a 1-2 pitch, Anderson hit a slow roller up the third base line. The Greenbrook third baseman hustled to the ball and attempted to nip a speedy Anderson at first, but the throw was low and skipped under the first baseman's glove. Friel came around from second to score the winning run to cap yet another surreal Westfield victory.
If this is any indicator how the summer will be, we're in for another wild ride.
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