By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
In the District 12 Little League tournament opening loss to Millstone-Roosevelt, the West Windsor 10-year-old all-star baseball team didn’t look like the group that Dennis Vinson had been coaching since they were 7.
They resembled more the team he has come to expect as they dispatched of East Windsor, 10-0, in an elimination game Tuesday night at Bordentown.
”We’re back on track,” said Vinson, the WWLL manager as they headed into their second game in the losers’ bracket against Cranbury-Plainsboro, a loser to Robbinsville in the second round after they had topped Ewing, 18-2, in their opener. The game was scheduled to be played after early holiday deadlines.
Princeton opened the tournament with a pair of wins, topping West End, 18-1, and Bordentown, 6-3.
”We’ve won the games we should win,” Vinson said. “It was a stretch to beat Millstone, but we didn’t play well. Tonight, we played clean baseball which is all you can ask for.”
The 10-year-old all-stars consist of: Caleb Birnbaum, Tommy Colitsas, Joseph Di Russo, Matthew Dorfman, Aaron Kats, Nicholas Liao, Nate Millinger, Carter Mudgett, Yell Newhall, Ishaan Pandya, Patrick Rancan, Matthew Thibault and James Vinson. They have proven to be a resilient bunch as they have developed nicely over the years.
”This 10-year-old group is down in number of kids,” said the elder Vinson. “In West Windsor, the 9s are loaded, the 11s are extremely good. The 10s, we just don’t have a lot of kids. It hasn’t been easy, but they’ve stuck with it. I love that. They won a tournament. They’ve improved. We’re going up against some really good baseball towns.
”Some other kids that wouldn’t be as into it would have walked away. I give these kids and their parents a lot of credit.”
Vinson saw their hard work pay off as they bounced back from an opening defeat to eliminate East Windsor.
”Everybody hit, everybody played, it was great to watch,” Vinson said. “It’s a great group of kids. They play travel ball together. It’s a fun group to be around.”
They had plenty of fun in the win. Aaron Kats was dominant with his pitching, and the defense played error-free baseball behind him. West Windsor was able to finish the game in four innings and saved Kats for another potential start Sunday after limiting him to 65 pitches.
”He could have gone the distance,” Vinson said. “We just wanted to save him.”
WWLL will have to fight all the way back through the losers’ bracket, beginning with a game against Cranbury-Plainsboro that was pushed back to Thursday due to inclement weather Wednesday. Vinson is looking forward to seeing how his team reacts. They rebounded well from their first loss.
”So much depends on your draw and who you get,” he said. “We’ve been seeing enough of these teams with travel baseball that we knew the best teams. We knew we had a tough draw against Millstone and thought we’d get East Windsor next. It broke the right way.”
The squad is hopeful that the breaks keep coming. They have the right make-up to be a factor in the tournament.
”I think we’re pretty balanced,” Vinson said. “Up top, our 1-2 pitchers, between James Vinson and Aaron Kats, if they’re on, it’s tough to hit them. It was obvious they weren’t going to hit (Kats).”
Nate Millinger led the offense’s breakout tournament showing with a 2-for-3 evening at the plate with a double. WW is hoping that they can duplicate the effort again in the tournament.
”If we keep improving, that’s what I want to see from these guys,” Vinson said. “I want it to be positive.”
The WWLL team is still a work in progress. Thibault, the team’s catcher, has been at his new spot only a year with the all-stars, and the team is still getting to understand how each individual fits.
Helping Vinson are assistant coaches Joe Dorfman and Adam Millinger. Taking the long route through the losers’ bracket may not be ideal, but they were happy to see how fast their team bounced back from an opening loss.
”It wasn’t the team I know,” Vinson said. “If we play hard and get beat, we get beat. We have to play well, and then someone has to beat us.”
