Westfield Wins Opening Game of Ridge Tournament

Westfield White recovered nicely from last night's sluggish effort by playing a very solid game against a very tough opponent in Basking Ridge.  Westfield won 4-3 despite the fact that they had a run erased on a very unusual call.

Chris Boutsikaris took the mound for the Blue Devils and he threw 3 solid innings on the hill.  Boutsikaris and Westfield escaped trouble in the 1st inning with some great defense.  With the bases loaded and one out, a Ridge batter hit a fly ball to shallow left field.  Shortstop Chris Rinaldi made a nice play to track the ball down and then he threw a strike to catcher Devin Anderson who caught the ball and applied the tag to the runner who attempted to tag up from 3rd base on the play.  Both players were awarded Blue Balls (defensive award) on the play.  Boutsikaris held the tough Ridge lineup to 3 runs on 4 hits.

Westfield trailed 1-0 in the 2nd when Devin Anderson stepped up to the plate with Vin Difilippo on 1st base. Anderson launched a long fly ball to deep left center field for a home run giving Westfield an apparent 2-1 lead.  Basking Ridge appealed to home plate saying that Difilippo never touched home plate before entering the dug out.  The umpire agreed with the fans and the Ridge coach who pointed it out and Difilippo was ruled out and the score was set back to 1-1.


Ridge took a 3-1 lead in the top of the 3rd, but Westfield scored 3 times in the bottom half of the 3rd to take a 4-3 lead.  Liam Heinbokel led off with a walk and advanced to 2nd on a ground out.  Hopper Murray followed with a single and advanced to 2nd on a steal to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.  Scott Tupper then stepped to the plate and continued his pattern of clutch hitting when he laced an 0-2 pitch into right field for a 2 RBI single.  Heinbokel and Murray scored to even the score at 3 and Tupper advanced to 2nd on the throw home.  Eric Varakian then hit a hard ground back up the middle for an RBI single and Tupper scored to put Westfield ahead 4-3.


Nick Mele relieved Boutsikaris and shut down the Ridge bats in the 4th and the 5th inning, allowing a single hit and striking out 2 in 2 innings of work.  Difilippo then took over pitching duties in the 6th and quickly recorded 3 outs to secure the win.

Next up for Westfield is Springfield on Friday at Gumbert #3 at 6:00 PM in a Central Jersey Baseball League game.