By: Sean Moylan
Although it has an exceptional Allentown team in its pool play bracket, the East Windsor 12-year-old Little League All-Star baseball team could match up fairly well with the other teams in its District 12 Little League bracket (6-11, HTRBA and Ewing). Moreover, even Allentown has lost some of its better players from last year’s championship 11-year-old club.
As 11-year-old all-stars, East Windsor did not win any games in last year’s District 12 Little League baseball tournament. However, East Windsor was in a very tough pool play bracket and it did play well against a couple of pretty good baseball teams.
This year, however, East Windsor is expecting to have some modest success.
"I’d like to win one or two games," said East Windsor manager Ray Taylor, who managed the 11’s last season.
Zack Freedman, who pitched well for the 11’s last season, is back and should be one of East Windsor’s starting pitchers. He also plays first and third.
Erik Anders may get a pitching start or two for East Windsor and he too can play third base. With the new Little League rules which limit starters to 85 pitches, Taylor will have his starting shortstop Dylan Malinosky and third baseman Craig Fishbach ready to pitch a few innings too.
Ray Taylor, who played AAU baseball this year, will catch. Jordan Finger will play at first while Gregg DeDomenico and Matt Weingast will both see action at second base.
Erik Headley is the team’s center fielder. Most likely Dan Carroll will play in left field while Chris Sholy plays right field. Brandon Conlon can play any outfield spot or catch.
Of course, Taylor and his assistant Bill Knopf are still moving guys around and trying them out at various positions. Versatility never hurts in this tournament. With pitch counts, others will surely be asked to throw an inning here or there.
Finger, Malinosky and Freedman are all pretty good hitters so East Windsor should score some runs. Moreover, Freedman and Anders have good pitching arms. East Windsor has held practices at the PAL complex every night since Taylor selected his team last Friday (June 15th).
East Windsor is scheduled to open at 6-11 versus 6-11 at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday (June 27th). Next Thursday (June 28th) East Windsor is scheduled to play Allentown at Chambersburg at 6:00 p.m. On June 30th, East Windsor is scheduled to play Ewing at Millstone-Roosevelt at 3:00 p.m. Then on July 1st East Windsor is scheduled to host HTRBA at 5 p.m.
