Westfield Blue 10s Summer 2008 Travel Baseball: Westfield Blue tops Long Hill 8-7

Westfield Blue prevailed in a tough battle in Long Hill tonight, defeating Long Hill by a score of 8-7. Tonight’s game almost seemed like 2 games: In the first 3 innings, WB hit and fielded extremely well and racked up a sizeable lead. In the final 3 innings all that changed and the lead almost evaporated. However, WB held tough and won the game.

Things got rolling for WB right away. In the top of the 1st, Tyler Roth, Rowan Oberman, Owen Colwell singled back to back to back. Owen Murray picked up an RBI with a sac fly. George Devanney Murray continued the pounding with a single, followed by a double from Parker Hess and singles from Justin Lin and Will Stern. In total, WB racked up 5 in the first inning. Long Hill was unable to score in the bottom of the first. After their runner at 3rd base left early when tagging up, the alert umpire called him out saving at least one run and killing their attempt at a rally.

WB added another run in the 2nd when Liam Loughlin singled and was driven in by Roth. Long Hill put runs on the board in the bottom of the 2nd but the WB defense then shut them down. Both teams hit well but were unable to score in the 3rd due to excellent defense from both sides.

WB started off the 4th well; Daniel Criscuolo singled, followed by a single from Lin and walks by Stern and Owen Brancatella. Justin Lankler ripped a single to drive in Stern in what turned out to be WB’s last RBI of the game. Despite having bases loaded in both the 4th and 5th innings, WB was unable to produce any more runs. Nor was the concession stand able to produce nacho cheese flavored sunflower seeds as requested by Roth; only barbeque flavored was available. At that point, the momentum of the game seemed to shift. Long Hill combined hits with WB defensive lapses to almost tie the game. With the tying run on base, WB held their ground and got the final out on a pop up to Hess at 1st.

There were several memorable plays in the game. For example, in the 5th Justin Lankler knocked down a grounder at 2nd that was heading up the middle and threw the runner out at 1st from his knees, saving a run and perhaps the game.

For the WB, the win tonight was especially sweet because it was on the same field where last year’s league championship game was played - it was nice to win one here.

Pitching for WB was shared tonight by the ever popular duo of Lin and Oberman.

Lankler drives in Stern for last RBI

"Americas Got Talent" future winner catches a
sunflower seed in his mouth in Slo Mo