By: Neil Hay
They went down. But not without a fight.
The Millstone-Roosevelt 10-year old All-Stars, hosting their own 16-team post-District 12 baseball tournament, played two competitive games last week. The locals lost both games, but the 10s showed a lot of fight in the dog before being eliminated.
Millstone-Roosevelt opened tourney play last Friday with a 9-3 loss to HTRBA. Chris Hennessy pitched the first three innings and took the loss. John Henry Kiczalis went the final two frames.
Millstone-Roosevelt managed only four hits in the defeat, including two doubles by Hennessy and one two-bagger by Nicholas Adler.
The next day the locals were edged, 6-5, by Cranbury-Plainsboro and were eliminated from further play. Adler, who went all five innings and threw a four-hitter, took the loss. Hennessy was the team’s big hitter with a solo home run and double.
The Millstone-Roosevelt tournament was the team’s third of the summer. In the District 12 tournament Millstone-Roosevelt lost twice, to the Ewing Nats by a 6-4 score, and to the Ewing A’s by a 7-6 final.
Said Manager Mike Adler, "We had good pitching from Hennessy, Adler and Ryan Olito in the districts. And Shane McKenna was a solid catcher."
After the districts ended, the team played in North Brunswick’s tournament, posting wins over South Brunswick and Edison "B", while bowing to Edison "A" and North Brunswick twice.
"This was the first time the kids played together," said Millstone- Roosevelt manager Mike Adler, who was assisted in the tournaments by coaches Drew McKenna, Bob Rothschild, and Carlos Figarola. Adler explained that, on July 1st, eight new players had to be added to the roster, joining four original All-Stars. It took a while for the players to get to know each other. That lack of familiarity hurt the team in the early going.
"Inexperience and errors really killed us," said Adler. "By the end of the month the kids started feeling good about themselves. The pressure was off the newcomers. There was a lot of pressure in the districts. When next year comes, hopefully these kids will stick together and come out for fall ball. The newcomers were dedicated and opened my eyes. I was proud of them, even if we didn’t get the wins. They tried their best."
The rest of the squad included Carl Appel, Alex Figarola, Chris Moke, Robert Quelch, Thomas Septak, Taylor Sinatra and Eric Todd.
