LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT…Westfield Tops Chatham 17-12

Written by Renee Trabert

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…it was a tale of two teams battling it out under the dimming summer sun on a balmy Sunday night. Westfield White drew deep into its offensive well, and fought back after some initial defensive setbacks and culled together a 17-12 victory over Chatham on its home field.


Chatham jumped out first with a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but DiFilippo on the mound shut down the Chatham charge with a strikeout. Barmakian, who hit the first of five Westfield doubles, scored on a Bremer single to put Westfield on the scoreboard.

Chatham tacked on their lead in the second but Rinaldi pulled down a “can of corn” popup to short, and then later threw to Oberman on first for the second out. Oberman caught a pop down the first base line to end the inning. DiFilippo’s double and Anderson’s walk set the stage for three consecutive run-scoring singles by Boutsikaris, Heinbokel and Oberman, which brought Westfield within one at the bottom of the second.

Chatham broke the game open in the top of the third scoring four runs, but Westfield took charge in the bottom of the inning with Barmakian(4-4) providing a lead off single, followed by Bremer (3-3, 2RBIs) who singled and Varano who walked. Mele then worked a run scoring walk, leaving three runners still on board for Di Filippo who crushed a three-run double to narrow the score to a two-run difference. Varakian worked a walk and stole second, and Anderson drove in DiFilippo on a sac-fly. Boutsikaris (2 RBIs) knocked in Varakian to bring the score to a 10-10 tie.

In his second inning of work, Oberman pitched an efficient fourth, facing four batters and retiring two with defensive fielding. Rinaldi led off the bottom of the inning with a walk, Barmakian singled and Bremer added a runner to the corners, which Varano (2 RBIs) capitalized on with a crushing shot to the outfield that scored the first two lead off runners. Mele (2 RBIs) singled and Chatham overthrows, combined with smart Westfield base running, enabled Bremer and Mele to tack on two more runs, putting Westfield ahead.

Westfield gave one back to Chatham in the top of the fifth but Oberman worked another quick inning, striking out the last two Chatham batters. A double by Heinbokel (3-3, 1RBI) put him in scoring position for Oberman who laced a shot to the outfield to drive in his second RBI on the night.

With a four-run lead (15-11), Mele was handed the ball and got strong defensive support from Bremer in the outfield and Varano on second and kept Chatham scoreless going into the bottom of the sixth. Barmakian, who led off with a single, crossed the plate off a bomb to the outfield delivered by Bremer, who then came around to score off a Mele double. Chatham tacked on a run in the top of the seventh but strong outfield work by Oberman and a throw across the diamond from third baseman Bremer to Boutsikaris put an end to the inning and to the game.