By Tim Morris
The first thing that Steven Schulman did when he gathered his Freehold Township Little League Junior League all-star team together in June for its first practice was to ask the players a question.
The manager asked why they were there. The overwhelming response was to play baseball.
It was just what the manager wanted to hear. His players wanted to be there.
That — and the other response of winning the district and region — convinced Schulman his club had the dedication required for what could be a long summer of practices and tournament games.
“They’ve been out there every day since June practicing,” the manager said. “They came prepared.”
The commitment of the Freehold Township players had its reward. They won the District 19 tournament, which secured a berth in the Eastern Regional that the Freehold Township Little League hosted Aug. 4-10 at Michael Tighe Park. In winning, the all-stars displayed remarkable poise and resolve. They faced five straight elimination games and won them all, including consecutive wins over Lincroft — including going extra innings in the finals — to secure the district pennant, which is the league’s ninth straight.
The hard road that Freehold Township took to win the district had the team ready for the regional tournament, where they faced all state champions.
Freehold Township proved its worth by defeating Connecticut state champion Edgewood Little League, 10-0, in its first game.
Although one-run losses followed, it did not take away from the impact the team made at the regional.
Schulman said that while the one-run losses can always have you second guessing, he added “you can’t look back.”
“What they did was outstanding,” he said. “We played two very good teams.
“[Freehold Township was] very respectable. [Other teams] knew who we were.”
Schulman noted that the Pennsylvania coach had come up to him and said he was glad his club didn’t have to play Freehold Township.
Freehold Township didn’t lose those games to just any teams. It fell to eventual champion West Salisbury Little League from Maryland, 6-5, on a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh and the third-place finisher Throgs Neck Little League of New York, 8-7.
West Salisbury went through the tournament undefeated, beating New Jersey state champion East Windsor Little League, 6-1, in the finals.
To play in Little League tournaments throughout the summer requires a lot sacrifice on the part of the players, coaches and parents. Schulman said that what Freehold Township experienced made it a worthwhile summer.
The District 19 champion Juniors were Robert Beam, Andrew Bernstein, Patrick Borromeo, Kyle Checkett, Nicholas Ernst, Sean Fiolek, Alexander Ginter, Daniel Molina, Brandon Ramos, Patrick Reilly, Nicholas Schulman, Dylan Shah, Kyle Wemrich and Sean Wodell.
Manager Schulman’s coaches were Alfred Molina and Robert Beam.