RR15 defeated Brocton Mass. 3-2 in an extra inning game and will play for the championship Sunday morning at 11:30 am. They will play the winner of the 9 am game who must beat Rotterdam twice to win the championship. Save your ace for the 2nd game!

AUG 02, 2009SARATOGA, NYFor the sixth consecutive year, ENYTB hosted the NABF 22U College Regional. And for the second year in a row, the tournament was hosted by ENYTB member, Paul Mound, and his Saratoga Stampede organization. Art MacDonald stood in for Paul most of the week and did a fabulous job of hosting and working with the league. Professio... read more

ENYTB introduced a new tournament format this year for the League Championships - Olympic Style. The idea of Olympic style play is to isolate two groups of teams, usually be geography, let each group determine its own champion and then let the two champions play each other in the finale. ENYTB was going to use this format to group teams by ability based on regular season W/L records, adjusted for strength-of-schedule. This would produce better competition throughout the tournament and thus encourage all teams to participate. Each LC also was designed to dovetail with the dates of the AABC sanctioned tournament so that teams participating in that tournament were given a BYE in Phase I of their LC. Each tournament was to include several Phases of play, giving teams that went through the whole tournament, quality baseball for about a 10 day period. Games were played at central sites on weekends and at individual team sites on weekdays at 6pm.But, alas, plans of men and mice go awry. This format requires a large number of teams, preferably at least six on each side of the bracket. We averaged half of that. In fact, when numerous registered teams dropped out of these tournaments at the last minute we were forced to abandon the Olympic style format altogether and teams of all competitive levels were forced to compete with each other throughout the tournament. As hard as it is for me to believe, the large number of late cancellations proved that, good intentions aside, many teams (their players?) have little or no commitment to playing in local mid-July tournaments, let alone this type of tournament that was designed to span 10 days for the finalists. As a result, ENYTB will discontinue offering these types of tournaments.Despite this unfortunate circumstance, I believe those teams that participated played a lot of good baseball and had a very good experience. LC16 This tournament had six total cancellations, including the Greenville Spartans who were unable to participate due to advancement in the PONY16 National Championship Series. The format was designed accommodate this and all advancing teams were given a full refund.Phase I, a four team round-robin, was totally wiped out when last second cancellations left only one team, the DevilCats (Red).Phase II included the DevilCats (Red) as well as several teams returning from the AABC and PONY sanctioned tournaments e.g., NC Padres (Red); Niskayuna Red Storm, Brunswick Buckeyes and the Duanesburg Braves. These five teams played a round-robin, with the top two teams advancing to the Championship Round. This tournament concluded in dramatic fashion on Monday, July 27. Going into the last game of Phase II, the No. Colonie Padres were eliminated from contention with one game to play v Duanesburg. They would play the role of spoiler i.e., if they win, Niskayuna makes the Finals, if they lose, Duanesburg makes the Finals. The DevilCats (Red), who were using this tournament as a tune-up for the NABF 16U World Series, where they are currently 2-0, had already clinched a berth in the championship game. Duanesburg played brilliantly to defeat No. Colonie 4-0, while Niskayuna was on hand to root for No. Colonie and be ready to play if fortune smiled upon them. The championship game was to be played immediately following this game. In about the 13th inning, the DevilCats took a 3-2 lead. In teh bottom half of teh inning, Duanesburg also scored a run. After 15 or 16 innings, the score was still tied 3-3 and it was about 12:30am. As Tournament Director, I conferred with Tom McGuire, Duanesburg's manager, and Matt Terry, the DevilCats manager, and it was agreed that the game would be called and both teams were named co-champions! Results for all games are provided on the online brackets.===========================================================LC15 Nine teams registered for this tournament. Two canceled before it started, one dropped out at the end of Phase I, one more dropped out in the middle of Phase II and a 5th team, the Rotterdam Rangers, were unable to participate due to advancement in the PONY National Championship Series. Phase I was a four team round-robin. The Twin Town DevilCats and the Empire State Express advanced from Phase I play, and they were joined by Waterford and No. Colonie, who had both received a BYE in Phase I due to their participation in the AABC National Championship Series.Like the LC16 tournament, the LC15 also had a very exciting and unexpected conclusion. And, like the LC16, the final game of Phase II inadvertently turned out to be a play-in game to the Championship game, which, again, was scheduled to be played as soon as the play-in game was completed. This time, however, nobody would be in the spoiler role. If No. Colonie Padres won, they were in, if the Empire State Express won, they were in. Again, the DevilCats, managed by Bob Derico, were waiting to see who they would play. And the wait was longer than expected. The Padres and EXPRESS went extra innings before No. Colonie finally pushed across the winning run, 7-6. The Padres, managed by Justin Oreshan, then won for the second time on the night, 11-7, over the DevilCats, who had beat the Padres 12-0 earlier in the tournament.Results for all games are provided on the online brackets. ===================================================================LC13This division had only six registrations but no cancellations. One team was lost, the Niskayuna Indians, because of their victory in the PONY13 National Championship Series.Phase I included a 4 team round-robin (the Niskayuna Red Storm had a BYE in Phase I due to their participation in the AABC National Championship Series). All games in this tournament but one were hosted at Burnt Hills (Indian Meadows). The host team, Charlton Black Sox, and the DevilCats (White) advanced to Phase II, where they were joined by the NISKY Red Storm. Charlton, managed by Barry Crane, finished Phases I and II undefeated. Niskayuna, managed by Chris Bianchi, defeated the DevilCats in their head-to-head clash, setting up a Niskayuna-Charlton Final. Niskayuna proved to be the better team on this night, handing Charlton a 13-1 loss on a beautiful night for baseball. Charlton had prevailed 14-2 in the same match-up earlier in the tournament. Results for all games are provided on the online brackets. ===================================================================

July 27New Bedford, MAThe CP Bulldogs, trained and managed by Ed Dempsey, didn't bring back a championship but they made a tremendous run at one.The Bulldogs drew the eventual tournament winner in game one, Youth Service League from Brooklyn. In a "tremendous" game according to Ed, his Bulldogs gave YSL all they could handle, taking them 9 innings ... read more

July 31Trenton, NYThe Rotterdam Rangers 15U came back from a 4-0 deficit to win 5-4 on a walk-off double. RR15 now gets a BYE in Round 2 and will next play at 4:30pm on Saturday v the other remaining undefeated team. The winner of that game will advance to the Championship Round, undefeated, and await the winner of the loser's bracket. The Rangers... read more

Sunday, July 26Trenton, NJAfter a strong post-season run, ENYTB's Greenville Spartans were eliminated by the Long Island Ducks 9-2 today. Manager Jim Silk said it was a great experience for his team to go away to a tournament like this and face top competition from other areas. Job well done Spartans! Greenville will continue its season this weeken... read more

July 26Lynchburg, VAThe NABF High School World Series (17U), featuring more than 30 of the best teams from around the country, began play this weekend. This tournament is one of the best opportunities in the entire ENYTB program, featuring a southern bar-b-q welcome, live musicians from Nashville, play at the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league stadium... read more

Sunday, July 26Woonsocket, RIAfter storming into the finals of the PONY14 Regional Championship, ENYTB's Halfmoon Mariners ran into a buzz saw as they were defeated for the 2nd time in the tournament by Massachusetts, a very deserving champion. Great job Halfmoon and welcome home!

July 26, 2009Bergen Beach, NYRotterdam (Manager Mike Saccocio) entered play on Sunday with one defeat. The undefeated Long Island Ducks stood between them and a Regional Championship. The task seemed tall as the Ducklings had given the Rangers their only defeat earlier in the tournament.The Rangers defeated the Ducks 3-0 to force the IF game, which... read more

In a busy weekend that saw Halfmoon participate in two tournaments at once and play 7 games from Friday night through Sunday, Halfmoon maintained energy and focus to win all 7 games and claim the crown of Last Man Standing in their age division.This was a 6 team event centrally hosted by the Twin Town DevilCats, with games played in Ballston Spa, ... read more