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Westfield Blue racks up 6-5 Win over New Providence

On a breezy summer night, Westfield Blue resumed its league play and welcomed home the New Providence team. During warm-up, Coach Murray asked the kids to improve their defensive play. The kids responded. In the 3rd inning, 2nd baseman Criscuolo picked up a ground ball, and alertly tagged out a runner to 2nd for the first out. After a strikeout, Criscuolo picked up another hard hit grounder and threw out the runner at 1st resulting in the 3rd out of the inning. In the 4th inning, Criscuolo caught a fast flying ball for the first out of the inning. In this inning, Coach Murray was also at his best when he successfully appealed for missing 2nd base after a New Providence player hit a long fly ball to center field, thus thawing a rally by New Providence. Lin and Colwell also contributed to several good defensive plays. The best of the night happened in the 6th inning, when catcher Stern fielded a ball and fired a bullet to short stop Roth to pick off a Providence player on 2nd that led to the 2nd out of the inning. Will's good play earned him one of two game balls of the night.

The pitching duty was handled by Colwell and Murray. Colwell got in the groove after two walks at the beginning of the game striking out 2 in the first, 3 in the 2nd, and one in the 3rd. O. Murray took over in the 4th and displayed good control striking out 1 in the 4th, and 2 in the 5th. The biggest strike of the night came at the top of 6th inning. With two outs, the leadoff hitter of New Providence came to the plate. After a 2-2 count, Murray threw a fastball striking out the last New Providence batter and preserving a 5-5 tie score.

The New Providence pitchers came to play and the Westfield offense had a hard time sustaining a rally. At the bottom of first inning, Oberman reached first after a hit to left field. After two stolen bases, a hard hit ground ball by Hess sent Oberman home with his first RBI of the night. In the 2nd inning, Lin hit a hard grounder passing the first baseman resulting in a double. After stealing to 3rd, Stern hit a line drive to center field sending Lin home for the 2nd score of the game. In the 3rd inning, Roth hit a line drive double to center field and he then stole 3rd. A sacrifice by Oberman scored Roth which tied the score at 3-3. In the 4th inning, Murray hit a double, followed by another double by Hess scoring Murray. Hess alertly stole home resulting in another score tying the game at 5-5.

After a scoreless 5th inning, and holding New Providence for no score at the top of 6th, Westfield Blue was ready to take the game. Oberman led off with a single. Colwell hit a grounder and beat the throw to reach first. After Oberman and Colwell each stole a base, New Providence decided to intentionally walk Murray only to find a charged-up Hess at the plate. After talking to Coach Murray briefly, a confident Hess knew exactly what to do. A grounder to the middle resulted in the winning run of the game, sending the team and the crowd into standing ovation. What a beautiful evening for another thrilling game!

Game Recap by Linus Lin

Parker, Rowan, Owen C & OB share
their thoughts on the game

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

Lankler starts a Conga line

Murray about to rip one

Lin fires a strike

Oberman on the hill

Lin at bat

Stern sets up behind the plate

Photos by Beth Lankler

Did Westfield Blue lose to S. Orange 6-3?

The final score of Saturday night’s Clark tournament game (a continuation of a rain delayed game originally started on June 14) was S. Orange 6, Westfield Blue 3. However, it did not look or feel like the same WB team that had handily beaten Berkeley Heights that same morning. Immediately following the game, the team was contacted by Dr. Felix Esnesnon, director of the government’s top secret Joint Center for the Study of Sports and Alien Life Forms.

Dr. Esnesnon reported as follows:
“At approximately 8:30 pm when our flayrods started spinning off their treddles we knew something was wrong. We dispatched the nearest local team to investigate. We were very puzzled. I mean, here is a team that scored 41 runs in their last 3 outings and now they only score 3? This team has fielded the ball nearly flawlessly in its previous games, yet tonight they made several defensive gaffes. We ran a satellite scan and determined that at precisely the time of the game, the following object was sighted in the sky over Clark:”

“Our theory is that aliens of an unknown origin abducted your players and replaced them with droids that looked exactly the same. These droids were experts in surfing and ballroom dancing but had subpar baseball skills.”

Dr. Esnesnon concluded by saying that “This is just a theory –we cannot prove it actually happened. Those aliens are really tricky – much smarter than us in fact. We do know however that all of your players have been restored to their original human forms and that the chance of this happening again is minimal.”

Westfield Blue defeats Berkeley Heights 11-3

After getting off to a sluggish start and trailing 3-0, Westfield Blue came to life in the bottom of the third inning. Liam Loughlin started a rally with a solid hit followed by a line drive single by Owen Brancatella. After Justin Lankler battled the pitcher in a tough at bat, Parker Hess then slammed a double, driving in the team’s first run. Strong hits and superb base stealing by Rowan Oberman, Tyler Roth, and Daniel Criscuolo added 3 more runs to the scoreboard. A great hit by Owen Colwell drove in run 5. Owen Murray knocked in the last run of the inning.

The fourth inning was a 1-2-3 inning. Justin Lin made the play at first to get out Berkeley Heights’ first batter. Owen Murray then struck out the next 2 batters. Westfield Blue’s defense showed its depth in the top of the fifth, when George Devanney Murray jumped up to grab a bunted ball and rifled it to first for an out. Roth then made 2 nice catches to wrap it up. In the bottom of the fourth Westfield almost got another rally going with hits by Will Stern and Loughlin but no runs were scored.

The bottom of the fifth got off to a great start with solid hits and stellar base stealing by Parker Hess, Oberman, and Criscuolo. Hess stole home for the seventh run of the game. A nice hit by Criscuolo knocked in the next run. Owen Murray’s stand up triple drove in 2 runs. A big hit by Devanney Murray drove in run 11.

Owen Murray’s spectacular on-the-run diving catch to get out a Berkeley Height’s batter was the highlight of the top of the sixth. Murray struck out the other 2 batters to wrap up the game.

Strong pitching by Daniel and Owen M., tough defense, and aggressive batting by the entire lineup contributed to the team’s 11-3 win over Berkeley Heights.

Game Recap by Cindy "Lois Lane" Roth

Photos from the game:


Criscuolo fires a strike
Murray unleashes some heat
Loughlin starts off rally
Excellent D from Lin at 1st
No thanks Will - I have my own
No thanks Lanky - Will already offered me some

The Hit Parade:


Brancatella

Hess

Oberman

Roth

Criscuolo

Colwell

Murray

Devanney Murray