It was a great summer of baseball for the Sayreville Little League 8-year-old All Stars.
The starting pitchers were Brandon Bielak and Cody Van Note, while relief pitchers Nicholas Affinito and Ryan Shereyka were also solid. The closers were Danny Iannoccone and Vincent Enea.
Behind the plate was Anthony Comunale and Matt Zebrowski, while at second base was Nicholas Luciano and Tyler Scanlon, at shortstop was Vincent Gambardella, and at third was Darrin Heisler.
The Sayreville boys played solid .500 baseball this summer and learned quite a bit, playing in tournaments at East Brunswick, Sayreville and North Edison.
"The last two games of the season made it all worthwhile," said team manager Tony Affinito Sr.
"We were faced with a doubleheader, traveling to North Edison, knowing we needed both wins to make the playoffs. We were faced with a 9 a.m. game in which the team pulled out a victory. That game went the full six innings for a total of two and a half hours of game time.
"The next game followed immediately, on a very hot Saturday," he continued. "We made it to the fifth inning and the game was over. We lost, but not really, because to see the kids playing their hearts out in a total of four hours and 11 innings of straight baseball, and never taking the smiles off their faces, made it all worthwhile. It made it a win in our eyes for the season."
The team’s coaching staff included Michael VanNote and John Zebrowski, and Larry Enea on the book.