In tournament play, West Windsor’s young Little League All-Stars found themselves resoundingly on top to end their summer seasons.##M:[more]##
Within a few short hours of each other, the Little League 9-year-old and 11-year-old teams both claimed the titles in separate tournaments.
First, the 11s defeated Cranbury-Plainsboro, 4-1, to take home the West End Tournament title. A few hours later, the 9s shut out Robbinsville, 9-0, for the title in the Lawrence Tournament Championship on August 6.
Following a loss in West Windsor’s quest to take the district title, August proved to be another chance for the 11s. The members of the team found themselves in the semifinal of the West End Tournament, where it defeated Sunnybrae, 11-1, in four innings on August 5.
In that game, CJ Markisz struck out seven batters and allowed no hits in 48 pitches to help lead his team to the championship game against Cranbury-Plainsboro. Again pitching proved to be the team’s strength as Kevin Murphy pitched 5 and 2/3 innings before reaching his pitch count limit.
Michael Radey took over pitching duties, where he was able to strike out the last batter with the bases loaded.
The team was able to rebound after back-to-back losses to Robbinsville to end its pursuit of the district title. The team first defeated Robbinsville on July 22, 9-7. However, the next two match-ups against Robbinsville were not so fortunate for West Windsor. On July 25, the team fell 9-2, forcing a one-game, winner-take-all rematch. Unfortunately for the 11s, the following day was not much better. The team fell 14-4 to Robbinsville in five innings, despite George Revock’s solo home run.
Nonetheless, the team’s championship win that followed the two losses echoed the high-caliber performance it demonstrated through pool play in the districts. There, with a win over Nottingham, 5-2, on July 19, the West Windsor Little League 11s advanced to the final six, following their pool play record of 4-0. The team brought in a total of 72 runs in its first four games, while only allowing a total of eight runs through pool play. The team’s run included a few blowouts, including against HTRBA, 25-0, against Trenton Southwest, 13-0, and against Florence, 21-3, in July.
For the 9s, a combination of nearly perfect pitching and strength at the plate proved to be the team’s success after a disappointing start. In the Little League, 9-year-old all-star teams play two tournaments. In the first tournament earlier in the season, West Windsor was upset by Nottingham, 3-1, in the quarterfinals of the Cranbury-Plainsboro Tournament.
“In the 9-year-olds, if you give up three runs, you’re not going to come out ahead,” said Manager Steve Lichtenstein. “We rededicated ourselves to working on our hitting, particularly hitting off kids throwing.”
West Windsor fell to HTRBA in the opening round of pool play in the Lawrence Tournament, but bounced back — mainly because of its focus on hitting — to go 3-1 to take the championship, defeating HTRBA in a rematch game along the way, says Lichtenstein.
The team played three games in three days, defeating Millstone in the quarterfinals, defeated HTRBA in the semifinals, and then defeating Robbinsville for the title.
“When we went into the elimination round, I was concerned about our pitching,” Lichtenstein said. This is because one of the team’s star pitchers, Matthew Michibata broke his hand in early tournament, and Lichtenstein worried whether he would have strong enough to carry the team through the three-day stretch. But, “everyone stepped up in the pitching department, and once that happened, we were OK because no one hits like us,” he added.
Once the pitching was set, West Windsor’s batting strength kicked in, said Lichtenstein. once we had the pitching set. Ben Goldstein and Brian Murphy picked up the wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. Cole Millinger led the team on the mound in the final.
In the title game, Millinger struck out eight batters to keep Robbinsville scoreless through four innings, ending the fourth inning with a strikeout with the bases loaded.
David Philbin took over pitching responsibilities and allowed two walks in the bottom of the sixth inning, but maintained the shutout by forcing the last batter of the game to bounce the ball back to him for an easy out.
The batting lineup proved to do the most damage to the Robbinsville defense. By the end of the fourth inning, West Windsor had a 5-0 lead thanks to a four-run third inning. Ryan Strype and Erik Howard each belted consecutive two-run singles in the third inning, followed by an RBI single by Blake Brown, who brought in runner Brennan Froio, in the fourth.
By the sixth inning, Brown had three hits, and had made it to third base on a few wild pitches. Jason Welsh walked and then stole second base, bringing up Philbin, who also had hit a triple and single in his first two at-bats. While Robbinsville was intentionally walking Philbin, Brown stole home to put West Windsor ahead by 6. Strype was up at bat again and belted a three-run home run over the wall in centerfield – the only home run of the tournament.
From year to year, as kids move up in the age brackets, it is hard to judge how well a team will do, Lichtenstein says. Last year, as 8-year-olds, his team took the title in both the early and late tournaments. “It’s tough because the other teams are going to improve as well,” he says, looking ahead to next year. “You always think you’re going to be competitive and be hot at the right time. We were definitely hot at the right time in this tournament.”
