Westfield Rally Falls Just Short vs Bridgewater American

In the longest game of the year, Westfield battled powerful Bridgewater American in a game that started 8 days ago and came up just short in a 9-8 loss.  The game originally started on July 12th but heavy rains came in the 2nd inning resulting in a suspended contest that Bridgewater led 7-1.

In the portion of the game that was played on July 12th, Vin Difilippo put Westfield ahead in the bottom of the 1st inning with a long home run into the trees beyond the left field fence.   Bridgewater came roaring back in the top of the 2nd when they scored 7 runs on 9 hits, including 3 home runs.  The rains came at an opportune time for Westfield and the game was stopped with 2 outs in the inning and the bases loaded for Bridgewater.

Fast forward 8 days and the game resumed that way.  The game scenario may have been the same, but many things were different.  There was no sign of rain, the Westfield players were very focused and Eric Varakian was on the mound.  Varakian got the 1st Bridgewater batter to pop-out harmlessly to the mound to end the threat.

Westfield then came to bat in the bottom of the 2nd with a purpose.  They scored 5 times in the inning to close the gap to 7-6.  Nick Mele, Scott Tupper and Eric Varakian singled, Chris Rinaldi and Michael Mobarakai both walked and Chris Boutsikaris hit a key RBI sac fly.  However, the big hit in the inning was a rocket, line drive, 2 run, homer off of the bat of Hopper Murray.  Murray's blast left the field in the matter of seconds and he was greeted at home plate by the Westfield bench.

Varakian then resumed his brilliant pitching.  Using a mixture of a change-up, a slow change, a slower change and a REALLY, REALLY slow change-up, Varakian kept the powerful Bridgewater bats mostly silent.   He pitched a total of 4 and 1/3 innings and allowed only 2 hits and 2 runs.

Westfield entered their final at bat trailing 9-6, but they did not quit.  Boutsikaris led off with a walk and then with one out, Murray fought off several hard fastballs and earned a walk himself.  Michael Mobarakai also walked, loading the bases.  Varakian then stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and 2 outs and he promptly hit a clutch 2 RBI single to left field to cut the lead to 9-8.  Bridgewater was able to survive the scare by recording the final out on a pop-up to shallow left that the shortstop caught to end the game.

Next up for Westfield is Mount Olive in the Cal Ripken State tournament on Wednesday at 6:00 PM in Wayne.