Strong with the force, Westfield is...

Great defense, solid pitching, and aggressive baserunning added up to a 6-5 win for Westfield over Clark today. The Blue Devils completed the round robin portion of the Cranford tournament with a 4-1 record and the top seed in the playoff round. The semifinal match against Scotch Plains Gold will be played on Monday July 7.

"Always in motion, you must be...."

Westfield scratched across single runs in the first two innings helped by 6 stolen bases. Devin Anderson flashed his speed game with a walk and three stolen bases in the second. Clark countered with 3 runs in the bottom of the first and 1 in the second on several hard hit balls to take a 4-2 lead. Chris Varano had a bit of bad luck when he got hit by a pitch on the hand. The play was ruled a foul ball and Chris had to leave the game with what we hope is only a bruised hand.

In the top of the 3rd, Eric Varakian and Chris Rinaldi each walked for the second time in the game. Both came around to score on the biggest hit of the game - a triple by Vincent Difilippo.

Nick Mele reached on a walk and both runners eventually scored on stolen bases and wild throws. Clark added a run in the bottom of the 3rd to make the score 6-5 and that is where it stayed. Although Westfield was held scoreless the rest of the way, Chris Boutsikaris added a sharp single, Hopper Murray and Brett Robertshaw also singled to round out Westfield's attack.

"Help you, the defense can"

In 4 innings of work, Hopper Murray struck out four, and did not walk a batter. That was the key as he trusted his defense and they came through. In the 4th, Murray got out of the inning on 5 pitches with 3 straight hard grounders handled by Varakian at 2nd, Difilippo at 3rd, and Mele at 1st base.

"Do or do not... There is no Try"

Chris Boutsikaris came on to pitch the last two innings and pitched to the minimum 6 batters with one strikeout and no walks. The highlight was in the bottom of the sixth when the first batter hit a rocket to deep center field. Tom Summers went back and in spectacular fashion made the grab, robbing Clark of an extra base hit. ("Catch the ball, I did" Tom muttered to himself). The second out was recorded on another play from coach Rinaldi's playbook - this one number 496. That's where the second baseman (He who shall not be named) lets the grounder go through his legs and the right fielder(Ethan Smith) throws to the shortstop (Chris Rinaldi) to get the runner between first and second. Bouts struck out the last batter to seal the victory.

Saturday it is showdown time in the district semi finals against Westfield Blue. Several Westfield Blue coaches were spotted scouting us during the game. "Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see"

Guest Blogger
Yoda
May the force be with you