Westfield Wins District 12 Title for 3rd Consecutive Year

Westfield White defeated South Orange Maplewood (SOM) 6-5 in extra innings to win the District 12, 12U 50/70 Championship.  The District title is the 3rd in a row for Westfield and it was the 3rd time in 3 years that Westfield and SOM faced off in the District championship game.

Westfield led 5-1 entering the 6th inning, but SOM rallied to tie it in the bottom of the 6th to send the game into extra innings.  Westfield scored a run in the top of the 7th with a 2 out rally that included 3 hits, a walk and some great base running.  Pitcher Scott Tupper and the Westfield defense delivered a great defensive inning in the bottom of the 7th to secure the win.

The Blue Devils first got on the board in the 3rd when they scored 2 runs.  Nick Mele started things with a line drive double to right field and he scored on a Vin Difilippo RBI single.  Difilippo advanced to second on the throw to the plate.  Chris Rinaldi followed with a ground ball to 3rd which subsequently thrown out of play and which allowed Difilppo to score.  They then took a 3-0 lead in the 4th when Chris Boutsikaris singled, stole 2nd and scored on a clutch 2 out, RBI single by Eric Varakian.

While Westfield was slowly building a lead, Difilippo was completely shutting down the SOM offense.  Difilippo threw 3 perfect innings before yielding pitching duties to Rinaldi in the 4th.  Westfield extended their lead to 4-0 in the 5th when Mele led off with a single, advanced to 2nd on a ground out by Difilippo and then scored on an RBI single by Rinaldi.

SOM scored 1 in the bottom of the 5th on a long solo homerun to close the gap to 4-1.  Westfield got that run back in the top of the 6th when Chris Boutsikaris scored on a heads up base running play.

Things seemed to be in good shape for Westfield as they led 5-1 and only needed to record 3 more outs for the title, but SOM had other ideas.  The SOM offense staged an impressive rally and when the dust settled they had scored 4 runs, tying the score at 5.  Scott Tupper came onto relieve Rinaldi with the bases loaded and 2 outs and he was able to get the SOM clean up hitter to pop out to 3rd base to end the threat.

Westfield staged a rally of their own in the 7th.  Devin Anderson started the rally with 2 outs and no one on with a hard single up the middle.  Liam Heinbokel walked and then Chris Boutsikaris singled to load the bases.  Michael Mobarakai then singled to drive in Anderson for the eventual winning run.  Heinbokel made a great evasive base running maneuver on the play which prevented SOM from recording the last out.

Tupper and the Westfield defense then went to work to close things out.  The 1st batter hit a high chopper to 2nd base which was quickly fielded by Varakian and he threw to first to just get the batter.  The next batter hit a slow roller off of the end of the bat to 1st base.  Boutsikaris fielded the ball and flipped to Tupper who alertly covered first base for the 2nd out.  3rd baseman Vin Difilippo then made the defensive play of the game when he lept and snagged a bloop to short left field which seemed destined to drop in for a hit.  Difilippo held on as he tumbled to the ground and then we was quickly surrounded by the rest of the team and the celebration began.

Next up for Westfield is Florham Park at 5:45 PM in Florham Park in CJBL league play.