Westfield White Rolls into District Semi-Finals

Westfield White took control of a tight contest with a 7 run bottom of the fourth and went on to defeat Warren 9-5 in a district tournament game tonight. The win improved the Blue Devils record to 3-0 in district play and set up a semi-final match against Westfield "Blue" on Saturday July 5th.

Hopper Murray continued his stellar pitching starting the game with 3 shutout innings, striking out 4. Hopper has now extended his scoreless inning streak to 10! He was helped by some slick fielding at third base by Devin Anderson who grabbed two hard grounders and got some help from Chris Boutsikaris pulling down the throws at first base. Ethan Smith caught a drive to right field and Chris Rinaldi snagged a line drive at short with two on and two out in the third. Chris "Mariano" Varano also contributed defensively to help keep Warren off the board in the early innings.

While Murray and Westfield's defense were shutting down the Warren offense, Westfield scratched out single runs in the 1st and 3rd innings to take a 2-0 lead. In the 4th Brett Robertshaw got things started reaching on a walk and promptly stole second and third. Ethan Smith pinch hit and singled to drive in the first run of the inning. Eric Varakian followed with a walk and Chris Rinaldi smashed a double to drive in Smith and put runners at second and third. Vin Difilippo singled in two runs, and Nick Mele hit a monster 2 run home run to left. Scott Tupper came to bat and smashed a single to center to start the rally up again. Robertshaw came to bat for the second time in the inning and singled to drive in Tupper. Tom Summers then ripped a single through the left side. When the dust settled, 7 runs were in and Wesfield had a 9-1 lead.

Warren climbed back into it with 4 runs in the 5th inning. With the score at 9-4, bases loaded and one out, the Warren batter hit a deep fly ball to left field and speedster Tommy Summers tracked it down and made the grab. Westfield got out of the inning with a grounder to first baseman Chris Boutsikaris who made the play unassisted for the final out.

In the sixth inning Scott Tupper came on to preserve the victory and the final out of the game was recorded on another fine grab by Summers in left field.