Westfield Comes From Behind to Defeat Chatham 6-5

Tired and fresh off of their marathon 17-16 victory over Bayonne in a Babe Ruth State tournament game, Westfield found themselves in a Central Jersey league battle against Chatham.

Westfield threatened in the 1st after Eric Varakian walked and Vin Difilippo and Nick Mele singled, but the Blue Devils were only able to score once in the inning. Chatham exploded for 4 runs in their half of the first on 4 hits and 2 errors.

Westfield pulled within two in the top of the 2nd at 4-2 when Hopper Murray led off with a double and then scored on a clutch RBI single from Ethan “DC” Smith. Chatham then extended their lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the 2nd on 3 more hits, but Westfield was able to escape further trouble when Hopper Murray struck out a Chatham hitter with 2 runners on base.

The game remained 5-2 until the top of the 5th when Westfield was able to tie the game on 5 walks, an RBI ground out by Chris Rinaldi and a RBI sac fly by Devin Anderson. Eric Varakian and Scott Tupper each threw 2 scoreless innings for Westfield and combined to limit Chatham to 4 hits over the final 4 innings while striking out 3.

Westfield went ahead to stay in the top of the 6th. Brett Robertshaw led of with a single and advanced to second on a passed ball. He moved over to 3rd on a Murray ground out and was knocked in with a key piece of hitting by Tommy Summers. Summers battled the Chatham pitcher and fought off a couple of hard pitches before driving a hard ground ball between 1st and 2nd that Chatham's 2nd baseman had to leave his feet to stop. Robertshaw alertly scored on the play and Westfield was able to hold on for the 6-5 victory.

Next up -- Westfield plays New Providence on Monday at 6 PM at Tamaques Field #6.