As the dog days of summer continue to wag on, Little Leaguers are keeping cucumber cool at the plate and blazing hot on the mound during the Travel League season. From Bayside to Howard Beach to Ridgewood, little league baseball’s basics are back on display.
The Ozone-Howard Blue Devils won the District 27 championship, dominating their way to a 3-0 tournament record. In the following sectionals, they defeated District 26 champs Elmjack, 7-3, and then ran over District 22 champs Pelham Bay, 11-3. The Blue Devils played Staten Island in the sectional championships in Kings Bay, Brooklyn on Tuesday, July 27.
Blue Devil coaches Tom Mastronardi, Sal Minichino and Guy Losito congratulate their team: Jack Mastronardi, Nick Spadaccini, Antonio Moccia, Patrick Diaz, Shawn Charles, Jr., Jack Klebonas, Jordan Roache, Christopher Manfre and Vinny Moss.
The Ridgewood-Glendale-Middle Village-Maspeth (RGMVM) Little League also saw championship action of its own, as the 10u Tournament Team captured the district flag in a four-game tournament sweep. They steamrolled Rosedale, 37-0, then defeated Ozone-Howard, 8-4, at Fort Tilden. In game three, RGMVM rocked Rockaway, 6-5, on a bases-clearing triple by Alex LeBeau and an 11-strikeout performance by hurler Robert Berrios. In the fourth and final game, Michael Urbano cracked a two-run homer to lift RGMVM over Ozone-Howard, 5-3, giving them the championship.
It was the boys’ first time playing together and with the help of coaches Judy LeBeau, Steve Ferro and Jimmy Downing, they were able to overcome the odds. Alex LeBeau, Jamie Downing, Sal Ferro, Joe Fragala, Greg Desocio, Michael Urbano, Robert Berrios, John O’Rourke, Steven LaRussa, Matthew Camus, Owen Motherway and Marc Caselli make up the RGMVM district champs.
And finally, Bayside’s 8-year-old travel team endured an opening day rainout and defeated the Elmjack All-Stars, 16-1, in their season’s second game.
Game three against Forest Hills was not as easy and Bayside needed clutch hitting and pitching to get the job done. Dominick Damiano started the game for Bayside, striking out five in two solid innings of work. With Bayside trailing by two runs in the third, Wesley Kao’s base hit cut the deficit to 2-1, and John DeCastro tied the game at two with a sacrifice fly. The game remained tied until Christopher Rouzinos’ fifth inning base hit, followed by DeCastro again, who broke the game open with a two-run double. Nicholas Perez pitched shutout ball the rest of the way, striking out nine batters and allowing no runs in four innings of work.
Game four at Ozone-Howard saw an offensive explosion from Bayside, as they won 14-0. Aristo Pagiatakis set the tone with a leadoff triple, while Aiden Ciarniello drove in five runs and fell a double short of the cycle. Savvas Papadopoulos belted a two-run homer and Regan Goger played strong in the field all day. Bayside also got contributions from Sebastian Cabrera, Nicholas Gutleber and Teddy Rouzinos, while pitchers Christopher Velaoras and John Callahan had shutdown stuff, keeping Ozone-Howard off the scoreboard for the duration of the game.
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