East Hampton Little League All-Star Teams Either Reach Playoffs or are Still In Hunt for Playoff Spot in District 36 Tournaments

East Hampton Little League’s 12-and-under baseball team advanced to the semifinals of the District 36 Tournament after finishing pool play a perfect 4-0 last week.

After having defeated Southampton, 9-0, on June 22 to kick off the tournament, East Hampton defeated East End Little League, 4-3, in walk-off fashion on June 24, then last week defeated Sag Harbor, 9-3, at the Bridgehampton Fire Department Field on Thursday, June 29, before finishing up with an 8-2 victory over North Shore American at the Stephen Hands Path Sports Complex in Wainscott on Saturday.

Now in the single-elimination playoff bracket, East Hampton, which earned the top seed in Pool A, will play North Shore National at the North Shore Little League Complex in Rocky Point this Thursday, July 6, at 8 p.m. The winner of that game will advance to the District 36 Championship Saturday morning at Stotzky Memorial Park in Riverhead against the winner of the other semifinal between Riverhead and Sag Harbor.

East Hampton Little League President and manager of the 12U baseball team, John Grisch, said he likes his team’s shot at advancing and playing for a district title this week.

“I think our chances are the best they’ve been in years,” he said. “With this group, there’s no bottom of the lineup. Every hitter is a top-notch hitter, and it’s hard to position the players on the field because all of them are really well rounded. I think our chances are really good.”

Grisch said the win over Sag Harbor last week was a team victory, with just about everyone in the lineup getting a hit. Colin Grisch, John’s son, pitched the first four innings and only allowed two hits.

East Hampton was tied, 2-2, with North Shore American going into the top of the sixth inning on Saturday, when Colin Grisch ripped a double off the left field wall. Scott Abran drove in Grisch with a base hit and East Hampton went on to score six runs in the inning to take the 8-2 victory. After Aiden Stone pitched five strong innings, Ryan Balnis came in and closed out the victory.

This year’s 12U All-Stars include Scott Abran, Finn Alversa, Declan Balnis, Ryan Balnis, Alex Bobek, Jackson Cook, Jake Daniels, Colin Grisch, Rohan Keogh, Cayden Sokol, Aiden Stone and Elias Wojtusiak. The team is managed by John Grisch, who is assisted by Scott Abran and Ray Wojtusiak.

East Hampton’s 12U softball All-Stars needed to defeat Eastport-South Manor in order to get a rematch with North Shore for the District 36 Championship, and they did just that, grabbing a 7-1 victory at the Stephen Hands Path Sports Complex on Thursday, June 29. But then on the very next day, East Hampton lost, 6-1, to North Shore at Stotzky Memorial Park in Riverhead bringing an end to its title run. It would have had to defeat North Shore twice, as it was a double-elimination tournament.

East Hampton only trailed North Shore, 2-1, going into the fourth inning on Friday, but due to a few walks, some hits and a mishap in the field, North Shore tacked on four more runs to put the game out of reach. Other than that fourth inning, manager Steve Centalonza said his team was right there with North Shore, which had a strong pitcher. East Hampton had lost, 10-0, to North Shore earlier in the tournament.

“We played well during the tournament and the coaching staff is extremely proud of the team,” he said. “We played hard, played smart and played together. It was a great experience.

“The future is bright for Bonac Softball.”

This year’s 12U softball All-Stars include: Callie Amicucci, Merritt Bistrian-Emptage, Dylan Centalonza, Fallon Centalonza, Cameron Dawson, Ella Field, Jackie Geerhreng, Allison Rade, Evelyn Royal, Brie Steele, Maeve Tupper and Cameron Tuthill, and is managed by Steve Centalonza, who is assisted by Jeff Tupper and Justin Geerhreng.

East Hampton’s 10U baseball All-Stars have played to a 2-2 record, with a pair of games remaining this week. While they have an uphill battle to advance to the playoffs, with both North Patchogue-Medford and Sag Harbor undefeated thus far, the boys still have a shot if they can get some help along the way.

East Hampton lost its last game, 16-3, on Saturday at the Stephen Hands Path Sports Complex, but prior to that had picked up a big 12-7 victory over Riverhead, which was also in East Hampton, on Thursday, June 29. In that game, manager Asa Gosman said his team hit the ball really well and that it was up by more runs than the final scored ended up being. Marco Danielli pitched well, as did Baron Hildreth and the team played well in the field.

Gosman said his team has two tough games coming up against Sag Harbor this Thursday, June 6, at the Stephen Hands Path Sports Complex at 5:45 p.m. and then it finishes pool play on Saturday against North Shore American in Rocky Point at noon. Not only does his team need to win both games, but they’ll need help with some teams picking up additional losses if they want to move on to the playoffs.

“The kids are battling hard,” Gosman said. “They’ve been in every game. Last game, they were just overmatched, but they’re playing hard and having fun.”

This year’s 10U baseball All-Stars include James Balnis, Dixon Bennett, Connor Cashin, Marco Danieli, Caelan Ferguson, A.J. Gosman, Jack Helfand, Baron Hildreth, Cooper Meehan, Griffin Page, Robbie Posilloco and Hudson Thomas. They are coached by Asa Gosman, Matt Meehan and Josh Helfand.

After going 1-2 in pool play, which ended in a 16-0 loss to North Shore on June 28, East Hampton’s 10U softball All-Stars played Riverhead on Wednesday in the District 36 semifinals. Since there were only four teams in the entire tournament, each team played each other twice before moving on to the single-elimination playoffs. North Shore is playing North Patchogue-Medford in the other semifinal which was also Wednesday. The winners of both semifinals play for the district championship on Friday, with a place and time still to be determined as of press time.

This year’s 10U softball All-Stars include Madeline Abran, Addison Cinelli, Mia Coppola, Avery Dalene, Ava Duryea-Kelly, Audrey Hildreth, Siena Kinney, Ann Peterson, Sage Quackenbush, Evelyn Sanders, Sophia Schuerlein and Charlotte Vickers. The team is managed by John Cinelli who is assisted by Erin Abran and Sean Kinney.