Westfield Defeats Union 9-3 to Advance to CJBL Championship Game

Westfield met up with a tough Union team in the semi-final round of the Central Jersey Baseball League playoffs and prevailed 9-3 to advance to the championship round. The Blue Devils had not played a game in just over a week and the break seemed to help as they appeared well rested and focused. Vin Difilippo pitched four very strong innings and Chris Rinaldi and Hopper Murray each threw an inning in relief, holding Union to 3 runs on only 5 hits.

The defense was razor sharp behind the Westfield hurlers and almost every play was executed to perfection. The umpire commented after the game that “the Westfield defense was the best he has seen all year” and several outstanding plays were turned in by the team. Center fielder Ethan “DC” Smith started the highlight reel catches with a beautiful sliding stab of a fly ball that seemed destined fall in just over 2nd base. Smith read the hit perfectly, got a great jump on the ball and he finished off the play with a sliding catch in short right center field. Vin Difilippo was up next and he added some flare to his diving catch of a short pop-up near the 1st base line. Difilippo left his feet to snag the ball just before it hit the ground and then he rolled over a few times, kicking up a cloud of dust for effect, before showing the ump that he held onto the ball. Hopper Murray closed things out and recorded the last out of the game with a diving stop of a sharply hit ground ball to the right of the pitcher’s mound. Murray kept his composure after the catch, got back to his feet and made a nice throw to Chris “Boots” Boutsikaris at 1st base for the final out. Boots made some very nice plays at first base, saving a couple of throws in the dirt and Brett Robertshaw made a nice stop of a hard hit ground ball at 3rd base and threw out the runner at 1st base to save a run. Nick Mele turned in a great job behind the plate and completely shut down Union’s running game. Chris Rinaldi and Devin Anderson teamed up to throw a runner out at the plate after Rinaldi made a backhand stab at shortstop and threw to Anderson who was blocking the plate. Anderson did a great job of holding onto the ball and applying the tag as the runner was initiating contact with him.

Westfield’s offense came alive early and often with almost every batter recording a hit. Difilippo (3 RBIs), Boutsikaris (1 RBI) and Murray each had 2 hits and Nick Mele batted in two runs. Westfield came back from a 1-0 deficit in the 1st inning to score 5 runs. Rinaldi led off with a hard single to the right side and Difilippo walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd with one out. Rinaldi and Difilippo advanced on a delayed steal and scored on a line drive double by Nick Mele. Boutsikaris followed with an RBI single and then Brett Robertshaw crushed an RBI double to left center. Scott Tupper and Ethan Smith drew walks to the load the bases and then Murray laced an RBI single to complete the scoring in the inning. Westfield’s offense plated another run in the 2nd as a result of hard hit doubles by both Eric Varakian and Vin Difilippo. In the 4th, Westfield scored two more runs on timely hitting and aggressive base running. Hopper Murray led off with a single and then Chris Varano scorched a hard ground ball to 2nd base that the Union 2nd baseman made a great play on to force Murray. Tommy Summers followed with a beautiful bunt single to put runners on 1st and 2nd and Rinaldi walked to load the bases. Difilippo then drove a single threw the right side to score Varano and Summers. Boutsikaris then rounded out the scoring in the 5th by leading off with a triple and then scoring on a passed ball.

Westfield plays Long Hill in the championship game on Monday night. The game will likely be played in Warren at 6PM.