The good times just kept rolling on a certain block in Hamilton Square this summer.
The Talar and Reymann families live across the street from each other, and were both an integral part of the Nottingham Little League resurgence. Chris Talar managed the NLL 8-year-olds All Stars, who won the first overall state title for that age group in New Jersey Little League history; and Adam Reymann managed the 10-year-old squad that won states and advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament.
In looking at the overall checklist, Nottingham won District 12 tournaments in all four age groups — as the 11s and 12s also won — and the 9-year-olds were unbeaten in both tournaments they won. Since the 8-year-old districts only started last year, it is the first time in district history a league won at four different levels in the same summer.
It marked a big comeback for the once-dominant league. Nottingham won its first 12-year-old District 12 title since 2015, which was also the last year it had two district champions. Talar’s sons Austin (8s) and Brennan (10s) became District 12’s first brothers to win state titles not only in the same year, but on the same day, as Nottingham had never won two state crowns in one season.
Although the 11s and 12s both lost in sectionals — and for the 12s it was only the second tournament loss in their five-year history — it could not detract from a celebratory summer in The Square.
Reymann credited this year’s 12s for setting the tone to the historic run. That team won three districts, two sectionals and two state titles, and lost in the Section 3 final 1-0 to Holbrook in a gut-wrenching game.
“My son (Jack) was on that team, and I used to help coach them, and they’d been dominant since they were seven,” Reymann said. “If you asked anyone on that team, this year was a major disappointment.
“Because they were so good, they expected to win everything every year. I think by them winning and expecting to win, it makes everybody expect to win. Once everyone goes in with that mindset of ‘We’re definitely winning districts,’ then you win districts and you just keep it going. They kind of set the mind frame and the culture at Nottingham that districts weren’t enough, you gotta win more. If you can get the kids to believe, then it really makes it easier.”
Talar felt the adults also came together in a big way, right on up to president Adam Bendas.
“I think it obviously starts with the parents and coaches,” he said. “Little League is all volunteer, and that’s where it builds from. And then it turns into your talent of players. It was a great year. All the coaches were great people, they all worked their butts off. Obviously we knew every age group had a ton of talent.
“And Adam is phenomenal. He comes out to support us at all the games. He helps us with any resources we might need. Any questions he’s always there to answer. He’s the best. You couldn’t ask for more as president.”
Bendas could certainly be proud of this year’s group effort, highlighted by the state titles.
The 8-year-old tournament was held entirely at HTRBA. It started with districts, went directly to the South Jersey state tournament and ended with the first-ever North vs. South state championship game (last year there were just North and South champs).
Nottingham won all four district games and defeated a strong Sunnybrae squad, 6-1, in the finals to avoid an “if” game.
The Sayen Gang went on to win four straight SJ state games, opening with a 3-2, six-inning victory (for some reason they only played five innings in 8-year-old tournaments) over Cherry Hill Atlantic. The 8s then gained some revenge for the 12s by beating Holbrook, 7-3. After a win over Freehold, NLL beat Cherry Hill again, 4-2. The state final was almost anticlimactic as Nottingham beat Nutley, 13-2.
As for the host league, Talar said of his township neighbor, “HTRBA did a phenomenal job hosting everything.
The skipper was uncertain of how far his team could go, since it was basically just starting out.
“Seven-year-olds is a really watered down year,” he said. “You coach-pitch, they don’t keep score. We had a strong team, the majority of that team came back to play with the eight year old team. All these kids are playing travel ball when they’re not playing for Nottingham. It really shaped up, we had a very strong team.
“I didn’t really know what to expect once we got out of the districts. I knew Sunnybrae had a strong program. I didn’t know what to expect with the other teams but I knew we had a very strong nucleus of players.”
Those players were Dylan Beres, Luke Bordieri, Adrian Cicale, Joey Costello, Valor D’Ambrosio, Lucas Espinal, Ben Galant, Dominic Otter, Giancarlo Rodriguez, Dylan Schaefer, Mason Schiaretti and Austin Talar. Assistant coaches included Steve Beres, Santiago “Alfie” Espinal and Jeff Galant.
Schaefer’s brother Brayden was one of the 12-year-old team’s top pitchers, and he was one of three main hurlers for the 8s, along with Talar and Costello.
“Our strength was definitely defense and pitching,” Talar said. “I’d argue that Dylan Schaefer is the strongest 8-year-old pitcher in the state. He throws harder than most 10 year olds.”
For Talar, the toughest thing this summer was trying to watch both sons play. He had to miss Brennan’s state final but his wife Kelly, a Steinert Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, made sure a parent was present.
Reymann and his wife, also named Kelly, played a similar balancing act since they had sons playing on two different teams. And they had just as much fun as their neighbors.
The 10s were coming off a 9-year-old campaign in which they went undefeated and won both their tournaments.
“I had high expectations to win districts,” Reymann said. “Other than that you really don’t know what else is out there because you’ve never seen any of these other teams before these guys are 10.”
Nottingham blew through districts, winning all three games and beating host Lawrence in the finals. The Section 3 tournament was a bit tougher as Nottingham won its first two games, lost to Toms River in the first game of the finals but came back to win the “if” game 13-8 for the championship.
Because sectionals ran long, Nottingham had one day rest before the states began in Livingston while all the other teams had a chance to reset their pitching. The Square Boys opened with a win over Haddonfield but one day later had to use 10 players to pitch in a 19-15 loss to Moorestown.
“We had absolutely zero pitching left in that second game,” Reymann said. “After that we started to get our pitching back.”
Fighting out of the loser’s bracket, Nottingham beat Caldwell, 16-0, then took 5-3 and 10-5 wins over Moorestown to give NLL its fourth overall 10-year-old state title and second in the last three years.
Winning two straight do-or-die contests in championship games gave a good indication of the moxie the 10s had.
“They never gave up,” Reymann said. “We played seven games in eight days. These kids were like machines. We played every day, they wanted to play every day. Even on our day off we would practice. I never saw 10 year olds that wanted to play like these kids did. They just loved it. They were into it, they bought into it everything the coaches were saying and they wanted to win.”
The ride ended in Cranston, Rhode Island, when Nottingham went 2-2 in pool play, and missed reaching bracket play by one game. But it could not detract from an outstanding effort by the team, which featured Jason Balon, Owen McWhorter, Ryan O’Connor, Ryan O’Donnell, Matteo Pandolfini, Owen Quirk, Tim Reymann, Braeden Ruymen, Gennaro Salzano, Elijah Spurlock, Brennan Talar and Ryan Walker. The coaches were Jonathan Spurlock and Sean O’Connor.
“Our pitching was outstanding the whole time, pitching and defense were our strong points,” Reymann said. “As we got moving on, our hitting really started to take off. We started to see better pitching, which helped us.”
And they accomplished something that will live on forever at the indoor batting cage, where all state champions get a board hung with their names on it.
“When we started off I brought them into the cage,” Reymann said. “I said ‘See these names up here, once you get your name up here it’s up here forever. You can come back and show your kids, your grandkids. That’s what I want for you guys.’ When we won states there were a bunch of kids going “Our names are going to be up there!’”
And so will the names of the 8s, as Nottingham Little League has made itself a force once again.
Nottingham Little League 8-year-old All Stars: (front row) Austin Talar, Gio Rodriguez, Adrian Cicale, Dom Otter, Lucas Espinal, Ben Galant, Luke Bordieri, Joey Costello, Dylan Schaefer, Valor D’ambrosio, Mason Schiaretti, Dylan Beres; (back row) coaches. Chris Talar, Steve Beres, Santiago “Alfie” Espinal and Jeff Galant.,
