The Southampton Little League 10-and-under baseball All-Stars team finished pool play in the District 36 Tournament last week. Although it didn’t win one of its six games in pool play, the team earned some valuable experience that hopefully it can take with it for next year’s tournament.
The 10-and-under tournament worked slightly differently 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.
Southampton had opened the tournament with a 15-7 loss to Sag Harbor on June 22, then lost, 20-2, to East Hampton on June 25. After losing, 12-2, to North Shore American on June 27, Southampton lost, 12-0, to North Patchogue-Medford on June 29, and followed that up with an 11-0 loss to North Shore National on July 1 before losing its final game, 6-0, to Riverhead this past Saturday.
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 team included Thomas Capalbo, James Crosby, Lucas Dimitropoulos, Josiah Escobar, Oliver Fulweiler, Keith Greene, J.T. Ingram, Donovan Lee, Connor Liebnitzky, Nash Lysogorski, Michael Ramirez, Niko Souhrada and Brady Trantolo. The team was managed by Vince Trantolo who was assisted by Chris Souhrada and Dan Lee.
