Westfield Pushs Through To Win First Playoff Game

Written by Renee Trabert

Westfield had to dig deep into its reserves to pull off its first round of league playoff action against South Orange-Maplewood (S.O.M.) winning at home 11-7.


Westfield fell behind by a run in the first inning but back-to-back triples by Rinaldi and Barmakian and a single by Bremer helped Westfield regain its balance. A single by Anderson and a double by Varano rounded out the offense and Westfield ended the inning with a three-run lead.

Boutsikaris took the mound in the second and dealt his second strikeout in his three innings of work. However, S.O.M. stayed aggressive and tightened the score to 4-3.

Lin got on board with a huge double, and with two outs, S.O.M. walked three Westfield runners setting up Bremer for a two run single and putting Westfield ahead 7-3. White kept S.O.M. scoreless again in the third but couldn’t capitalize on walks and another hit by Lin in the bottom of the third leaving the score 7-3 through three.

Despite a beautiful put-out at second from DiFilippo at home to Varakian, and a smooth throw from Mele at short to Lin at first, Westfield gave up three runs bringing S.O.M. within striking distance. Westfield battled back and picked up two runs off the bats of Varakian, Rinaldi and Bremer.

Rinaldi, who came in in relief in the previous inning, stayed on the mound and opened the fifth with a strikeout. Barmakian on third teamed with Boutsikaris on first for a second out, and Rinaldi fielded a “can of corn” to the mound for the final out, but a well-hit double by S.O.M. put another run on the board, bringing the score to 9-7. In the sixth, Varano pulled down a pop fly at second while Barmakian closed out the sixth with a running catch toward second base.

Westfield tacked on its two final runs of the night courtesy of a double by Varakian, a run scoring double by Mele and Barmakian’s second triple on the night. Leading 11-7, Rinaldi came back to the mound and made quick work of S.O.M. dealing two consecutive strikeouts, while Mele scooped up a grounder at short and tossed it to Boutsikaris for the game-ending out.