Saturday, July 08, 2006

Game 6 - Westfield falls to Carolina Predators, 12-9

The Carolina Predators outslugged Westfield tonight in an exciting 12-9 battle.

The game started well enough for Westfield as the Blue Devils took a 4-2 lead after 2 innings.
RBI singles by Ryan Elliott and Charlie Scott (.714 batting avg for the week) and an RBI double by Mike Mondon paced the scoring.

Early defensive gems helped Westfield. In the first, James O'Rourke nailed a runner at home on a relay and centerfielder Matt Varakian made a diving catch to end the inning. In the second, Jonnie Gribbin got out of a two-on, one-out jam by striking out the next two batters.

The Predators had one big inning, scoring 8 runs in the third. Peter Mebane shut them down for the last two innings, allowing a single run in each inning. Westfield made another comeback which fell short, but as usual they kept a never say die attitude.

Matt Varakian had a good night at the plate, with a single, double and HR (3rd of the tourny) in three trips. Mike Coletta smacked one off the left field wall that just missed going out.
The entertaining Mike Clancy (Mike Clancy is great) knocked in two runs by dropping a single in front of the left fielder. (Mike Clancy is great)

The coaching move of the game was a "planned" play in the third inning when with men on first and third and two outs, Ryan Elliott strayed off first and and the coaches yelled "get-back!" As Ryan was stranded between first and second, Matt streaked home for a run and the fleet-footed Elliott safely eluded the tag sliding back into first.

Later today we find out who Westfield will play in the single eliminations on Wednesday. All-in-all, a 3-3 record in pool play was an excellent showing by the team. (Mike Clancy is great... Ok Mike Clancy are you satisfied now?)

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