Staying Focused

The theme has been staying focused and Westfield did not look past New Providence on Monday night in coming away with the 10-0 victory.

Although the game was played at New Providence, Westfield was the "home" team because the game was originally scheduled for Tamaques and the fields were deemed unplayable. So the road warriers were back at it.

Brett Robertshaw set the tone as the starting pitcher with 3 shutout innings, 4 strikeouts and only 1 walk. The Westfield offense struck early coming up with 3 runs in the bottom of the first on a single by Rinaldi, a double by Difilippo, and singles by Mele and Boutsikaris. In the bottom of the second Hopper Murray led off and christened his new bat with a blast over the left fielder's head. As Hopper headed for 3rd, Coach Rinaldi waved him around and the New Providence fielders executed a good relay to nail Hopper at the plate.

Westfield was back at it in the bottom of the third. Varakian walked, Rinaldi singled and after the runners moved up Difilippo brought home a run with a sac fly to right. Then Nick Mele lofted a big fly to left that looked like a Tiger Woods drive down the fairway. This time the New Providence relay came up short and Nick slid in safely at home with a 2 run homer.

Devin Anderson was hit by a pitch, and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. Brett Robertshaw brought him home with a single and Scott Tupper followed with an RBI single of his own to complete the 5 run inning to put Westfield ahead 8-0.

Ethan Smith came on to pitch the 4th and the 5th and did an excellent job throwing two shutout innings. Smith kept the New Providence hitters off balance by changing speeds and locating his pitches.

Westfield added two runs in the bottom of the 4th on a walk to Varano, single by Smith, walk to Summers, and RBI singles by Rinaldi and Difilippo. Chris "Mariano" Varano was brought in to pitch the 6th and secure the shut out. Varano threw hard and used his fastball to record two strike outs.

Tommy Summers had the defensive play of the game when he fielded a single to center and threw a runner out trying to go from first to third on a base hit. This may have happened in the third inning or fourth inning - I don't remember because I am still recovering from the Bayonne game, but it was a good play just the same.

Another highlight was Chris "Bouts" batting lefty and stroking a single in the 5th inning. We might have a secret weapon there!