Rye on the Ball

Despite issuing eight bases on balls and flinging nine wild pitches, Rye’s select team of 11-year-olds still had a chance to take the District 20 Little League crown from a nervous Harrison side under the lights July 19 at Gedney Field in White Plains.

Billy Chabot slams a fourth-inning homer.

Undefeated Harrison had plenty to be anxious about in the bottom of the sixth. Though they’d beaten this same Rye roster 7-3 just four days earlier, the Huskies were in obvious awe of their rivals’ bats.

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Rye’s select team of 11-year-olds opened the District 20 Little League playoffs July 8 by thumping a strong Eastchester team 9-5 at Disbrow Field.

Rye started slowly, with four batters going down swinging in the first two innings. But the floodgates opened in the third, when Rye’s No. 8 and 9 hitters, Owen Hull and Max Kenny, stroked a pair of singles through the middle. Everyone was safe when Eastchester’s third sacker muffed Matt Bruno’s grounder, and Dusty Mion’s hard single to center plated all three runners, aided by some sloppy Eastchester defense. Billy Chabot’s groundout to short scored Rye’s fourth run of the frame.

Front row: Andy Bach, Jared Olbrys, Forbes Crowley, Billy Chabot, Gavin Kenny, and Sean Hale; middle row: Dusty Mion, Max Kenney, TJ Lavelle, Owen Hull, Brett Egan, and Matt Bruno; back row: Coaches Brian Bach and Michael Kenny, and Manager Greg Hale.

Unfortunately, pitcher Max Kenny’s own defense was porous early on, and Eastchester was ahead 5-4 when Chabot settled things with a towering homer to right-center in the fifth. Mion’s second hit of the day, a double, drove in Bruno for Rye’s ninth run in the sixth inning, after which Mion took the mound and closed out the game.

The following Monday, Rye was back at Disbrow to take on fellow first-round winners Elmsford, trouncing them, 8-2. The victory sets up a battle of the unbeatens July 15 at Eastchester’s O’Rourke Field against Harrison, which defeated White Plains, 8-4. The winner advances to the championship round, where they’ll need one victory in two games (if necessary) to win the District 20 title.

Rye’s All-Star 9- and 10-year-old baseball team did it the hard way. After being walloped 11-1 by Harrison in their first game of the District 20 playoffs, manager Matt Anderson’s charges came roaring back to beat both Thornwood’s Sherman Park and Kensico in dramatic one-run contests, each a last-inning, walk-off affair.

Front row, left to right: Henry Cetina, Aidan Anderson, Finn Westerink, Henry Friedrich, and Troy Egan; middle row: Jason Ciardiello, Jamie Abt, Grant Meyerson, Will Tonkel, Rick Burke, and Andrew Barbara; back row: Gary Ciardiello, Matt Anderson,and Steve Barbara. Not pictured: Yoshihide Sato.

The team, ironically designated as the visitors at Disbrow Field by the tournament schedule, took on Ardsley July 1. Lacking the services of starter Yoshihide Sato, they still came out swinging. After falling behind by a run in the first, Will Tonkel doubled to the fence in right-center, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a towering fly to left by Grant Meyerson.

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Greg Hale, Rye Little League Board Member, Bart, Micheline, and Micheline DiNardo, and Mike Hull, Rye Little League Board Member

Prior to the first pitch of Rye’s Major League Championship game last month, Micheline DiNardo was honored with the 4^th annual Ryan Adamson Sportsmanship Award. The trophy is named for the Rye Little League and Babe Ruth player who passed away four years ago at the age of 15.

“I was honored to be presented with such a meaningful award and it was a really special way to end my Little League career,” said Micheline, who plays for the Rays under coach Paul Turcotte.