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. Professional announcer Nick Fabiani (formerly with the Staten Island Yankees) once again did an outstanding job of announcing, keeping the book and running the scoreboard for all games played at East Side Field. Other fields used in the tournament included: Skidmore College, Geyser Park and Kelts' Field (Waterford). Bill Kelts also helped us out on a couple of occasions by letting us move games to his field due to the rains.This may have been the most competitive college tournament we have hosted yet, and it may have had the most exciting finish we have ever had and we have had some doozies. (All results are shown on our online brackets.) The first thing I took away from this tournament was that ENYTB teams fared very well this year. Pittsfield Pirates - for the 2nd year in a row, Pittsfield was the only ENYTB to make the final four. PFLD began the tournament with a well played 3-1 victory over the Suffolk Braves.They followed that up with an exciting 12-9 extra innings victory over the DevilCats (ENYTB). The Pirates then stumbled against the undefeated Yorktown Athletics (9-1). next, in a rematch with the Suffolk Braves, they prevailed once again (6-3). This win propelled the Pirates into the final four where they drew the talented ABCO Phillies. Down 2-0 late in the game, The Pirates loaded the bases but failed to score, eventually losing by a score of 3-0 in a well played game by both teams.The Tri-County Bees opened with a BYE and then lost to the Yorktown A's (7-2). Next they drew the eventual tournament winner, the Long Island Astos (former winner here in 2005 and former World Series Champion (2005)). The Bees held a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the 8th behind a brilliant pitching performance by Kris Barone. Unfortunately, a walk and a bloop single put two men out and with two outs, the Astros surprised the Bees with a double steal, followed by a delayed steal of home. Next batter gets a base hit and before inning concludes, the Astros took a 4-3 lead which it maintained in the 9th. A heartbreaking loss for the Bees, that stopped them from gaining the final four.Saratoga Stampede - were shut out 3-0 in round one by eventual finalist ABCO Phillies. They bounced back to defeat the Bethlehem Eagles (ENYTB) 9-3 and had the Suffolk Braves down 7-2 before letting them get away (10-8).The Twin Town DevilCats also played terrific baseball. They opened the tournament with a 5-2 win over Cortlandt (Westchester Baseball League), before bowing to Pittsfield in the 12-9 extra innings slugfest. The DevilCats then gave the Bees all they could handle before falling 12-9.Wateford let a first round game against the Yorktown Athletics get away. Waterford took the lead 5-4 in the top of the 7th inning only to lose in the 8th inning. After getting a BYE in Round Two, WFD ran into a buzzsaw, the Long Island Astros, and lost 7 to 1. It was manager Rob Nolan's first time competing in the college division. After winning the top berth in our wildcard division and gaining this valuable tournament experience, he may one to watch out for in the future. The Bethlehem Eagles drew eventual tournament champion, Long Island Astros in round one and held the game close before losing 5-0. They then lost to Saratoga (9-3), who, like Waterford, had lost to a monster opponent in round one.So when the smoke cleared Sunday morning, there were just two teams standing, the undefeated ABCO Phillies (4-0 with a BYE) and the once defeated Long Island Astros (4-1). The Astros lone loss came to ABCO in Round 2, when ABCO pushed across a run in the bottom of the 7th inning to win 3-2.In the second match-up between these two foes, ABCO took an early lead but the Astros pulled even at 4-4 midway through the game. This continued through 9 innings, with the score tied 6-6. In the top of the 10th, the Astros broke through with 4 runs. The Phillies loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the inning but managed to score only one run before hitting into an inning ending double play.We switched fields, and at 4pm, the IF game began, The Astros scored 3 runs in the opening frame and the Phillies resopnded with 4 runs. Then, in the 2nd inning, the rains came and the tournament was called.NABF tie-breaker #1 = best overall record. Astros were 5-1 and Phillies were 4-1 with a BYE. Astros declared champion! What a tough way to lose for the Phillies. NOTE: Prior to the start of the tournament, all teams voted unanimously to conclude the tournament on Sunday no matter what. In addition, the Phillies had rejected my suggestion that if the tournament was interrupted, let play count (completed full innings only) as an official game regardless of innings played. Otherwise, they would have won the tournament. Under these circumstances, I asked NABF to let both teams advance to the World Series in Toledo, Ohio, later this week, but the World Series brackets were full.

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 ... read more

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