Teams

The 11s Win Their Third Tournament in the 2010 Season - in the Cooperstown Baseball Classic!

Having not played since their second tournament win, almost three weeks earlier, it took the team the seeding games against the teams from Wilton, Connecticut, Goshen, NY (The Storm) and the defending champion from Montgomery County, PA (Montco Mad Dogs) to get on track.

In the first game of championship round, we were ahead 2-1 after the 4th inning on the usual pinpoint control of Sam Pennell and excellent catching of Lucas Abrenica. Our momentum was building when the rains came. The 45 minute delay worked to the Montco Mad Dogs team’s advantage: they scored one run in the 5th inning and another in the bottom of the 6th to take the first game of the first round.

Being a double elimination tournament, we dropped to the loser’s bracket. To go all the way we would have to win FOUR straight games -- the other losing team from the first round, the losing team between the remaining undefeated teams, THEN the undefeated team TWICE – ALL IN ONE DAY: A quadruple-header on Sunday!

With seven pitchers on the staff and four catches, little did our opponents know that we were fresh and just getting started. Sunday’s first game against the Wilton, CT team was won handily, 11-2, on the arms of Brandon Woo, Milo Richards, and Nick Cardieri.

The second game was against the Montco Mad Dogs (who had lost to The Goshen Storm in the second round and beaten us to drop us into the loser’s bracket in the first championship game). Their surprise was our ace Sam Boorstyn – who pitched a brilliant complete game, 4-hitter, beating the Mad Dogs 3-1. Sam faced only 5 batters over the minimum. Their other surprise was the awakening of our bats and sharp defensive play. On singles from Gavin Brien and Brandon Warnock, we jumped out to a 2 run lead in the first inning and never looked back. The win went to Sam Boorstyn.

We had made it to the finals but since Goshen had been undefeated, we had to beat them twice: two down, two to go.

As in the last game, we jumped out to an early lead, scoring one run in the second and two in the third on hits by Stuart Ross, Brandon Warnock, and Nick Cardieri, and the lightning fast pinch running of Emmitt Sklar, who had been injured in an earlier game when a pitched ball hit his right hand on the bat. (We later found out that his finger had been broken.)

Sam Pennell held the Goshen Storm to one unearned run in four innings, giving up only one hit. A great catch in left field by Stuart Ross and our closers shut them down to take The Storm 3-2. The win went to Sam Pennell. One to go…against the no longer undefeated Goshen Storm, again!

Up to the task was our sidearm ace, Stuart “The Terminator” Ross, who held The Storm to one run (in the third inning) on two hits in three innings. But once again, we took an early lead, scoring a run in each of the first three innings on the timely hitting Travir Grant, Brandon Warnock, Nick Cardieri and Sam Boorstyn, and the excellent sacrifice bunt of Milo Richards.

With gas still in his tank, Sam Boorstyn returned to the mound. In the 4th inning the first batter grounded back to Sam on the second pitch; the second batter reached on an error on the second pitch; and the third batter ripped a hard line drive up the middle that appeared to be caught on a dive by Milo Richards. But the hard hit ball popped out of his glove, which was exactly what we needed because it allowed Milo to flip it to Brandon Warnock at 2nd and for Brandon throw it to first to complete the double play. It was a 5 pitch inning! Two innings to go.

In the fifth, a solid single and two bloop hits loaded the bases with no outs. With the corners in, Sam went to work on the batter’s knees and got the next two batters to ground to Tom Jensen at third. Thomas rifled both shots to Nick Cardieri at home and all of a sudden it was two outs with no runs in, but the bases were still loaded.

Then Sam worked his magic and struck out the next batter. Bases loaded, no outs and no runs scored! It had to take the wind out of the Storm.

In the bottom of the sixth the first batter hit a ball to shortstop and Brandon Warnock threw him out. The second batter popped out to Gavin Brien in center field.

And fittingly, Sam struck out the third batter to save the win for Stuart: 4-1.

4 games; 24 innings; against 3 different opponents, who were held to a total of only 6 runs the whole day; and Sam Boorstyn, Sam Pennell, and Stuart Ross gave up NO walks in the seventeen innings they pitched. In addition, over the course of the tournament days, three players had their throwing hands injured (as it turns out two had broken their fingers). It was the ultimate test of physical and mental toughness that the team passed with flying colors. The most valuable player of the tournament was…THE TEAM.

Nobody could say that they didn’t earn the prizes: 2010 Cooperstown Classic 11u Champions and an automatic bid to the 2011 USSSA World Series. And what a season…3rd place in a 12u league and three tournament wins with a tournament record of 13-1!

OUR PITCHERS

SAM BOORSTYN

SAM PENNELL

STUART ROSS

BRANDON WOO

THOMAS JENSEN

MILO RICHARDS

NICK CARDIERI

Winning their 9th straight tournament game in the 2010 Spring season, the Bulldog 11 Orange team won 4 straight to capture the NYTB Post Season Bantam East Championship. Finishing 3rd place overall during the regular season (in a 14 team division containing both 11 and 12yo teams), the Dawgs came from behind in two of the four games to beat three 12u teams (Huskies 12s, St Ephrems and the High Heat Kings) and one straight 11 yo team (Huskies 11s).

On Saturday great pitching performances by Brandon Woo, Milo Richards & Nick Cardieri kicked off the tournament with a come from behind win against the regular season 1st place team, the Huskies 12 (giving the team a 2-1 record against them for the Spring season). The game was turned by a clutch hit by Travir "Kid Trouble" Grant. In Saturday's second game, Sam Pennell pitched his usual economical gem against the Huskies 11s with Sam Boorstyn slamming the door in the 7th. The game featured great hitting including a grand slam home run by Nick Cardieri.

On Sunday Sam Boorstyn pitched a 7 inning complete game masterpiece against the very tough St Ephrems 12u team. Clutch hitting in the bottom of the 6th inning put the team ahead for the first time in the game and great defensive play closed out the game in the top of the 7th. In the final tournament game Sam Pennell reached back and pitched an average of just over 10 pitches per inning in a 7 inning complete game performance to seal the deal against the High Heat Kings.

But it wasn't only pitching that did it, the defense was key, with great center field and 3rd base play by Gavin Brien, the vacuum cleaner glove of Stuart Ross at 1st, solid catching by Nick Cardieri and Thomas Jensen, clutch 2nd base play by Emmitt Sklar and Milo Richards, and spectacular leaping catches by Brandon Warnock at shortstop.

Over the course of the tournament the Dawgs scored 28 runs while allowing only 15. The tournament capped an 12-2 streak that began with their victory in the Memorial Day tournament. Next stop: July 16th Cooperstown, NY!

The plan has always been to integrate the new players and use our regular season for development and to prepare us for the tournaments. Winning five straight and the Marlboro LL Memorial Day tournament must mean that we are on track!

Four Bulldog teams made the championship round in the Marlboro tournament, one of NJ’s largest youth travel baseball tournament venues. Taking it all was the Bulldog 11 Orange team who went undefeated over five games, winning the 11u (50/70) finals by a score of 10-2. The team gave up only 7 runs in the last four games behind the masterful catching of Nick Cardieri (who completely shut down the opponents’ running games), great defensive plays by Brandon Woo and Milo Richards, and the clutch pitching of Sam Boorstyn and closer Stuart ("The Terminator") Ross in the semis and the stunning, 60 pitch, 1 walk, complete game performance by Sam Pennell in the finals. It was a total team effort with key hits by Brandon Warnock, Emmitt Sklar, and Thomas Jensen and the walk off game winning homer by Travir Grant in game 1 and the grand slam homer by Stuart Ross in the finals. “Except for the finals every game was a squeaker, but that didn't stop them from letting it all out, making diving plays and running the bases aggressively.” Bulldog fans certainly got their money’s worth!

Playing up to 11-12 yo distances, the Bulldog 10u Orange team (with the help of a handful of Bulldog 11s) won the NYTB Bantam West, finishing the season with a 12-1-1 record!