While Nottingham and Sunnybrae dominated the District 12 tournament trophies this summer, Lawrence did manage to prevent a clean sweep by winning the district’s 50-70 tournament.
And while that was nice, manager Matt Heady said it was basically a by-product of what the Lawrence Little League is actually trying to do.
“Collectively amongst the presidents of little league (Paul Vichroski and Paul Alfieri) and president of travel (Ken Dobkin), the objective became to develop these kids and get them prepared for high school as opposed to having a short-term objective of winning a little league tournament,” Heady said.
He added: “If the outcome of you developing the kids playing at a higher level is winning a 50-70 tournament, that’s icing on the cake. The real goal is to have them be competitive when they reach the high school level.”
For the second straight year, the same group of 11- and 12-year-olds played up against 13-year-olds during April. Last year they dropped back to the 46-60 fields for the District 12 tournament but had trouble re-adjusting.
“It’s a different game of baseball,” Heady noted. “It’s not just the distance on the field. The baserunning is different. In 50-70 you can take leads and things like that. Adjusting from a pitching standpoint is challenging as well. It’s a different game all the way around.”
Lawrence coach Jim Maher, who pays close attention to his little league feeder system, agreed, saying “When you’re playing 50-70 the ball’s not getting on you as quick. It’s a big adjustment to hitting. I would think the velocity is probably much better at 46-60 than 50-70 at that age.”
The downside – or in this case the more demanding side – of playing 50-70 is that Lawrence was going against teams of predominantly older players.
“Lawrence does not allow 13s to play in Little League which is the right decision in my opinion” Heady said. “ But that means you’re going up against a group of 13 year olds with 11 and 12 year olds. For the most part that never bothered our guys. It was never an issue or question in their mind, but we do run into some big kids and strong kids. Princeton had a couple kids that put the ball out of the park. It creates more of a challenge.”
Granted, a three-team tournament does not seem like much of a challenge. But considering the competition was against older players, that balanced the scales somewhat.
And Lawrence was ready.
After blasting Nottingham, 14-4, in the opener, Princeton scored two seventh-inning runs to take a 4-3 win over Lawrence. The locals once again defeated Nottingham, 14-4, in an elimination game, then came back to take victories of 7-6 and 10-9 over Princeton.
In the championship game, the Nassau squad trailed 10-5 before scoring four runs and putting two runners on in the seventh inning. Bryce Davison then retired Jason Lutz, Princeton’s most dangerous hitter, to clinch the fourth district championship in Lawrence history. The last two win one was the 12s in 2018.
“Princeton was resilient, they were persistent and wouldn’t go away,” Heady said. “I thought our guys did a great job pitching early on; towards the end we gave up a couple runs but we were able to hang on and fight them off. There wasn’t a singular big moment, just our persistence and we battled. The last inning of that last game was scary but we survived.”
Along with Davison, the roster consisted of Myles Eldridge, Luca Agosto, Benny Heady, Logan Armstrong, Ryan Ewig, Gio Vecchiolla, Henry Thomas, Jaiden Hughes, Colton Spiteri, Will Furda and Emmett Parsons.
Agosto, Armstrong, Davison, Eldridge, Ewig, Heady, Thomas and Vecchiolla have played together on all-star teams since 2021, and most played travel ball with the Lawrence Thunder since 2020. They won their third USABL championship prior to winning districts.
Eldridge was symbolic of the team’s dedication, as he talked his parents into allowing him to stay home for the final game when they had to drop his brother off at the Naval Academy. Agosto, Armstrong, Thomas and Hughes all had strong outings on the mound, while Hughes doubled in what proved to be the winning run in the title game.
Heady, this year’s Jim Davis Sportsmanship Award winner for LLL, caught all but three innings over five straight days of stifling heat. Ewig made a diving catch in left field to preserve the first win over Princeton and Vecchiolla also had some diving grabs in the outfield. Spiteri closed out the second win over Nottingham, Will Furda collected four hits and Emmett Parsons helped build a rally in the second win over Nottingham with a bunt single.
“We had to play five games in a row in that oppressive heat,” Heady said. “We fought through (the elimination bracket) to get back. This kids are tough kids, they’re hard workers. If you have a 6 o’clock practice and show up at 5:59 you’re 10 minutes late. They’re on task all the time.
“They had a goal to become the first Lawrence 50-70 team to win the title. That’s part of what we talked about. We had an opportunity to make history and they bought into that. It was exciting and they played their hearts out.”
Lawrence lost two straight in the Section 3 tournament against some tough competition.
“We played a team where some of the kids were bigger than the entire coaching staff of both teams,’ Heady said with a laugh. “You had some big 13-year-olds. Our kids played tough, both games were close going into the late innings. One umpire found out we had all younger players and said ‘You guys should come back; you’ll be great in this tournament next year.’ But they’re all going into middle school next year. There’s no reason to look back at 50-70. The 12s will move up to Babe Ruth.”
And while Babe Ruth baseball has fallen of drastically over the past decade, it seems to be surviving in Lawrence.
“We’ve been doing well in Babe Ruth; they’ve been fielding a bunch of teams. Carly Vichroski (wife of Paul) is president and she does a great job of pulling people in. Babe Ruth is a challenge when you have school ball and travel ball. Kids are pulled in every direction; it makes it difficult. But Lawrence has been doing OK.
“These are the first group of kids coming through the travel program created by Ken Dobkin. The objective is to get them ready for high school. We want to challenge kids and develop them. It’s a mindset and something the folks in the organization have bought into.”
When asked if he liked the LLL’s mandate, Maher said it didn’t matter how they did it, it’s just a matter of Lawrence kids being on the diamond consistently.
“My thing is as long as they’re playing and they’re playing together; that’s the most important thing,” the Cardinals coach said. “I’m happy the kids are playing together and they’re having some success. I saw the league did well. The 10-year-olds finished third (in districts), the 9-year olds went to the finals.
“Baseball right now is doing well in Lawrence. It’s starting to grow in this town. I think a lot of what we’ve done in high school has excited the town. Kids want to be part of it.”
Lawrence Little League players and coaches celebrate winning the district's 50-70 tournament.,
