It Was One Heck of a Run for East Hampton Little League This Summer

For years, it was North Shore Little League that was a thorn in the side of its East Hampton counterparts. It seems as though Riverhead now wants to take that title.

Despite getting themselves out to an 8-0 lead after two innings of play, the East Hampton Little League 12-and-under baseball All-Stars couldn’t hang on in what became a knock-down-drag-out game ending in a walk-off 11-10 defeat — East Hampton’s first and only of the tournament — at the hands of Riverhead in the District 36 Championship at Stotzky Memorial Park in Riverhead this past Saturday.

It was only two years ago when basically the same teams had met for the 10-and-under championship with Riverhead having won that game. But East Hampton seemed determined early on to take the latest game on what was a hot and steamy day. It started the game with four consecutive base hits, and thanks to some heads-up aggressive base running, East Hampton led, 5-0, after one inning.

Riverhead put some base runners on in the bottom of the first, but a nice snag by Rohan Keogh on a hard hit line drive to right center kept the game at 5-0, before East Hampton went on a two-out rally in the top of the second to score three more runs. Jake Daniels scored on a dropped third strike with the batter being safe at first and Elias Wojtusiak made Riverhead pay even more with a two-run long single that hit the base of the fence in center field on a line drive.

From that point on, though, it very much became a tit-for-tat game. Riverhead responded with four runs of its own in the bottom of the third to cut East Hampton’s lead in half, 8-4. East Hampton tacked on a run in the top of the fourth, but East Hampton added three runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it just a two-run game, 9-7.

Alex Bobek’s liner to center field plated East Hampton’s 10th and final run in the top of the fifth, but Riverhead came storming back in the bottom half of the frame. After an RBI single by Eddie Meier, Tyler Chattaway cleared the bases with a stand-up triple, tying the game at 10-10.

Finn Alversa reached third base in the top of the sixth, but was stranded there, so the game remained tied heading into the bottom of the sixth. Riverhead led the inning off with a walk, and East Hampton appeared to have a double play to force extra innings, but the field umpire called the runner at first safe even though he appeared to be out. After a discussion by the umpires, Riverhead had two outs, but the game-winning run on second base. Tye Marelli then hit a high fly ball deep to right field that Colin Grisch made an all-out effort to try to catch, but the ball not only landed just out of his outstretched arms, but just inside the foul line for a fair ball and the walk-off victory.

With the victory, Riverhead advanced to the Section IV double-elimination tournament that begins July 14 where it will play four other Long Island district winners for a spot in the state tournament.

East Hampton Little League President John Grisch, who also managed the 12U team this season, did not blame the loss on the umpire’s errant call in the last inning after the game, and instead gave credit to what is a very good Riverhead team.

“They were a great team. They hit the ball, we hit the ball, and then they just came out on top at the end. It’s not the umpire’s call on that, it’s just us,” he said.

“They played like a team. I’m just really proud of them,” he said of his own players. “They were together as a group. I couldn’t be more proud.”

It was a great showing by East Hampton’s teams in its respective tournaments. Three of its four teams reached the championship game of their tournaments and the one team that didn’t, the 10-and-under baseball All-Stars, just missed.

“Overall, East Hampton baseball and softball are performing to levels that they have not performed at before as a group,” Grisch said. “Working out at The Hub in the offseason, coming together, being there with these new fields and just people being out there, the support from the community, we’re really, really happy with how it’s going and we’re really pleased with everything.”

The District 36 Tournament is the start of a long road that ultimately leads to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Teams advance through their local districts to sectional and regional play before actually reaching the games that are televised worldwide on ESPN.

This year’s 12U All-Stars included 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 was managed by John Grisch who was assisted by Scott Abran and Ray Wojtusiak.

Minors Baseball
Falls One Win Shy

After handing Sag Harbor its first loss of pool play, 8-5, on Thursday, July 6, at the Stephen Hands Path Athletic Complex in Wainscott, a game in which Baron Hildreth and Marco Danielli pitched well, and Hildreth, A.J. Gosman and Jack Helfand each scored multiple runs, East Hampton needed to defeat North Shore American on Saturday to leap frog Sag Harbor into the District 36 Championship. It lost, 11-1, to North Shore in Rocky Point.

“They hit and we didn’t. They knocked the cover off the ball. We didn’t hit the ball,” manager Asa Gosman said. “It is what it is. We had a great group that went 3-3 in pool play against some tough teams. We had big wins over Riverhead and Sag Harbor. I’m proud of them, they really were a great bunch of kids and I look forward to next year.”

The 10-and-under tournament worked slightly different than its older 12-and-under cohorts. Each team in the 10U pool played each other once and the top two teams advanced directly to the District 36 Championship. North Patchogue-Medford grabbed the top seed in the playoffs by going 6-0, while North Shore Little League’s American All-Stars and Sag Harbor tied for second place with identical 4-2 records, but Sag Harbor earned the second seed and final playoff spot by having the tie breaker (head-to-head record) — Sag Harbor defeated North Shore American in pool play. North Patchogue-Medford hosted Sag Harbor on Tuesday evening for the district championship.

This year’s 10U baseball All-Stars included 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 were coached by Asa Gosman, Matt Meehan and Josh Helfand.

Gosman said that of that group only his son A.J., Cooper Meehan and Caelan Ferguson will be age-eligible to return, while most of their teammates are aging up to the 12U team, if they decide to go out for that team.

“We’ll probably have a whole new group of kids, but we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll have some new kids come along,” he said. “It was a blast to compete with them. We had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun with this group.”

Minors Softball
Reaches District Championship

Of all of East Hampton’s All-Stars, its 10-and-under softball squad may have made the biggest strides from start to finish. After a 28-0 drubbing of North Patchogue-Medford, East Hampton lost its next two games, 12-1, to Riverhead and 16-0, to North Shore. Since there were only four teams in the entire tournament, each team played each other once before moving on to the single-elimination playoffs.

East Hampton started the playoffs with a 9-6 victory over Riverhead on July 5, then played North Shore tough in the district title game on Friday, ultimately losing, 7-0.

“I think after the first three games, where we played every team once, we kind of had one big win and two pretty big losses, so the goal after that was to take one game at a time,” manager John Cinelli said. “After we beat Riverhead, I told the girls, if we can beat them, we can beat North Shore. And so for that game, I just tried to have them play loose, try and have some fun, and if we can give them a scare, then that’s good in my book. And I think we accomplished that.”

North Shore only led 1-0 after three innings, a huge difference from the first time the two teams faced off, when the game ended after three. North Shore tacked on some more runs to get up, 4-0, after five, but in the bottom half of that inning, East Hampton started to get some hits and get on base, which was easier said than done, Cinelli said, against North Shore’s strong starting pitcher.

“Their pitcher was fantastic. Seventy five percent of her pitches were strikes and she didn’t allow a walk, which for 10-and-under is just great,” he said. “We put some runners on late which was great we just couldn’t capitalize. They scored a couple in the sixth that made it 7-0, but after losing, 16-0 to them, I think that’s a strong testament to how much our girls improved and how well they played the past couple of games.

“I don’t think [North Shore] was expecting a competitive game, and I think we gave them one, which was a big challenge for our girls going up against such a strong pitcher,” Cinelli continued. “We managed to get a couple of hits and we made some big plays in the field. I’m really proud of how hard they all worked and how they played.”

This year’s 10U softball All-Stars included 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 was managed by John Cinelli who was assisted by Erin Abran and Sean Kinney.