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The East Hampton Little League 10-and-under All-Stars.
The East Hampton Little League 10-and-under All-Stars fell one win short of claiming the District 36 Championship, falling to Riverhead, 17-7, at Stotzky Memorial Park in Riverhead on Saturday.
It was a tough loss for the East Hampton Minors as they held multiple leads throughout the game before Riverhead’s potent offensive attack took over.
After an 11-7 victory over Eastport-South Manor in the district semifinals, East Hampton was set to run the table, having gone undefeated prior to Saturday’s loss to Riverhead, which East Hampton had defeated by mercy rule in pool play the week before.
“They played their hearts out,” manager John Grisch said. “They had two walk-off wins during the tournament. The future looks bright, lets put it that way.”
East Hampton pulled off a triple play in Saturday’s game against Riverhead. Aiden Stone caught a pop fly in right field, threw out the runner trying to retreat back to second base, then shortstop Alex Bobeck, who made the out at second, threw home to catcher Ryan Balnis, who tagged out the runner trying to tag up from third base.
This year’s 10U squad included Scotty Abran, Declan Balnis, Ryan Balnis, Alex Bobeck, Kix Bock, Casey Carney, Jackson Cook, Jake Daniels, Colin Grisch, Cayden Sokol, Aiden Stone and Elias Wojtusiak. Coaches included John Grisch, Ray Wojtusiak and Scott Abran.
The East Hampton Little League 12-and-under All-Stars defeated Southampton, 7-0, on July 6 in what was a combined no-hit performance for pitchers Kai Alversa and Jackson Carney.
Alversa pitched the first five and a third innings, nearly the entire game, with 14 strikeouts, one walk and no hits. With 65 pitches thrown, the East Hampton coaching staff had to decide on whether to leave Alversa on the mound to complete the no hitter, or remove him 20 pitches under the pitch count rules that would make him available to throw in the team’s next available game should it advance to the playoffs. With a team-first mindset, the coaches opted for the latter and removed Alversa from the mound. Carney took over and got the final two outs to complete the no-hitter.
East Hampton wound up not advancing to the playoffs since North Shore defeated East End to advance, and although East Hampton and North Shore shared identical records, North Shore moved on based on run differential. Longwood wound up defeating North Shore for the district title.
East Hampton’s 12U squad this year included Kai and Finn Alversa, Luca Biondo, Tucker Bock, Parker Burns, Jackson Carney, Miles Eckardt, Kieran Hildreth, Declan Larkin, Sullivan Matthews, Trevor Meehan, Dennis Ruiz and Harry Thomas. Erick Bock was the team’s manager with East Hampton varsity baseball head coach Vinny Alversa and Jason Biondo as assistant coaches.
