Westfield got great pitching, solid defense and timely hitting in a 8-0 victory over Union in Central Jersey Baseball League play. Hopper Murray and Chris Boutsikaris threw 3 scoreless innings apiece, holding Union to only 2 hits and striking out 7 batters between them. The defense was solid behind the Westfield hurlers and there were two defensive plays which were awarded Blue Balls. Boutsikaris made a diving stab at 1st base on a hard line drive which seemed destined for right field and shortstop Chris Rinaldi made a nice play to throw a Union runner out at home with catcher Vin Difilippo making a great block and tag at the plate.
Westfield offense did manage to plate 8 runs but the scoring could have actually been much more significant – Westfield stranded 11 runners on base in their 5 at bats. Eric Varakian and Nick Mele led the offensive charge with 3 hits each. Varakian started the offense in the bottom of the 1st inning when he launched a lead off home run into the trees that stand beyond the right center field fence. Varakian and Devin Anderson had 2 RBIs each. Murray had 2 hits and Scott Tupper and Brett Robertshaw had hits, reached based in all of their at bats and they both scored key runs. Robertshaw, Difilippo and Rinaldi also had RBIs.
Westfield faces Chatham on Thursday night in Chatham at 6:00 PM.
I believe zat it is impossible to strand 19 runners in 5 at bats, but I was not at ze game, so perhaps it was a function of the space-time continuum.
ReplyDelete-Albert Einstein
Good catch, Albert...the 19 was a typo. That's what happens when you start writing these up at 5AM :(
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