The West Windsor and Cranbury-Plainsboro Little League has also begun this year’s pool play, and the expectations are high. Here is a look at this year’s teams:##M:[more]##
West Windsor Little League. The West Windsor 12 All Stars are entering into the toughest pool by far, according to Manager Mark Sitek, who thinks, though, that the team has a fair shot of extending its season. The team had an 8-3 win over Allentown on June 25, with the help of Junya Yokoyama, who hit a three-run homer in the first inning and a bases-loaded double in the second.
Sitek said his team is looking pretty solid, in all areas of the game. “We have better hitting than we did last year,” he said. “If the pitchers throw like they can, we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”
One of the players to watch out for this year is Ryo Komeno, who recently moved to West Windsor from Japan. “From what I’ve seen, he could be one of the top players,” Sitek says. In addition to Komeno, Andrew Clayton, Scott Feryus, Andrew Holubec, Alex DeSanctis, Nick Meduski, Mark Nicholas Sitek, Christian Waters, Tom Hanslin, Sean O’Brien, Yokoyama, and Josiah Foster round out this year’s team.
“We haven’t had a lot of time to prepare, but the kids should be ready,” Sitek says.
The team will face HTRBA at Nottingham at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 27, followed by a game against Nottingham at Allentown at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 28. Then, it faces Ewing away at 8 p.m. on Monday, June 30.
Cranbury-Plainsboro Little League The Cranbury-Plainsboro 12 All-Stars opened the beginning round of pool play with a 9-4 win against Millstone-Roosevelt on June 24 and a routing of North Trenton, 13-3, on June 25. Team manager Dave Benerofe says he truly believes this year’s team — consisting of Plainsboro players Matt Apuzzi, Scott Benerofe, Caroline Brooks, Alex Chen, Prachetas Fnu, Jay Mastrangelo, Mike Morabito, Jack O’Connell, and Neelesh Satpute — have a profound sense of teamwork, which he says is the team’s biggest strength.
“They understand very clearly that it’s not about any one player, and that it’s about the whole group of them,” he says. “We see it in practices. They’re just very supportive of each other, and that just goes a long way.”
Benerofe says he’s looking to three returning players from last year’s 12s to lead the team. And, “throughout the lineup, we just have a tremendous amount of contact hitting and speed,” he says. “We’re just going to leverage it in any way we can.”
And the team’s defense is also notable, especially in the game against Millstone-Roosevelt. The infield stopped an attempted stolen base and nabbed an opponent running to home. Dave Benerofe, the manager’s son and the starting pitcher, pitched four innings, giving up only four runs.
There are six teams in the pool this, with three advancing, and Benerofe says he’s confident that his team will be one of those three.
The team’s next two games are Friday, June 27, at 8 p.m. at home versus Six Eleven, and Saturday, June 28, at 10 a.m. at North Trenton versus Bordentown.
West Windsor Little League Softball Softball 12s manager Steve Bizenov says the good news for the team is that the girls have played on teams with each other for a number of years now, as Bizenov previously coached the softball 10s, and many of those girls have moved up with him to the 12s.
“We have a few strong pitchers, and we have fielders who have been in all the different positions before,” Bizenov says. The only drawback: “We didn’t have that much time to practice before the tournament,” he added. “We pretty much had a week to get everything together, which is tough.”
The team begun pool play among tough competition this year, and started out with an 0-2 record, despite nearly coming back to win with six runs on a bunt by Jessica Bizenov and Samantha Buckley’s double to the outfield in the fifth inning against New Egypt on June 23. The score was a close 7-6. Bizenov says he thinks the team has a pretty good shot at making it out of pool play and into the final four, as it did last year, and is just looking ahead to the next game on Friday, June 27.
Rounding out the team this year are Dina Alter, who pitched a strong game against New Egypt, Bizenov, Buckley, Kayla Carlen, Carley Meyers, Kristie O’Cone, Anahita Padmanabhan, Jessica Pe, Anjelica Sitek, Mackenzie Young, and Paige Kunkle.
Up next are games against Florence in West Windsor at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 27, and against Princeton in Princeton at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 28.
