By Sean Moylan, Sports Writer
”This year I think the kids are a little more hungry after seeing the Bordentown 12-year-olds run around with a District 12 championship trophy last year,” said Pat Welsh, who will manage this year’s Bordentown 12-year-old Little League All-Star baseball team.
Last year the Bordentown 12’s won their first ever District 12 baseball championship and manager Russ Harden became a legend by his expertise at calling pitches and the professional manner in which he handled an incredible Bordentown pitching staff. While this year’s tournament team doesn’t have one single returning player from last year’s championship squad, it is a very experienced club for the most part.
”Last year as 11’s we didn’t do too bad in pool play — we went 3-1. But then we lost our first two games in the final round,” said Welsh, who’d love to see more consistency this year. “The team is going to hit the ball and score some runs and the defense (a Bordentown trademark) is solid.”
Zach Gakeler, an 11-year-old, and Austin Goeke are back and should be two of Bordentown’s primary starting pitchers
”They’ve been our starting 1-2 in the past,” said Welsh, who also plans on giving Austin Papp some work on the hill this year. Goeke is a solid infielder while Gakeler and Papp can play in the infield or the outfield. With Bordentown, however, player versatily is the norm and not the exception.
”We have eight or nine players who can play the infield, the outfield and pitch,” said Welsh.
In fact, Nick Callahan, Austin Chaszar, Cole Clauser, Clark Laba and Patrick Welsh all pitch and can play anywhere on the field except for catcher. Bordentown does have two very good catchers in Tyler Revay and 11-year-old Ryan Shinn, who are both also infielders and outfielders. Tommy Walters is a solid infielder and outfielder and newcomer Ed Holmes also looks good in the infield and the outfield.
Last year Laba concentrated on travel baseball rather than playing Little League. Nevertheless, a couple of years ago he was a very good Little League pitcher and position player and he should really help out on this year’s club.
While many clubs decided to go with 11 players this year, Welsh and his third-year assistant Dave Revay decided to select 12 players to their all-star squad because the talent was there.
”This year I’m not too nervous about subbing because everyone on this team can play,” said Welsh, who has a very good working relationship with Revay.
Going into this year’s District 12 tournament, the Bordentown 12’s are a very hard team to gauge. It could be a dominating team or it may just be an average club. A lot will be determined by how the pitching holds up against powerful District 12 clubs that can mash the ball. It does, however, look like this year Bordentown is in a fairly favorable pool (Pool B), which has Six-Eleven, North Trenton, Millstone-Roosevelt, Cranbury-Plainsboro and Robbinsville in it.
”You don’t find out what you have until the boys get between those white lines,” said Welsh, whose club will open up against Robbinsville at Robbinsville next Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. Next Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m., Bordentown is scheduled to host Millstone-Roosevelt. On June 27th at 6:00 p.m., Bordentown is scheduled to play North Trenton at Cranbury-Plainsboro. Then on June 28 at 10:00 a.m., Bordentown is scheduled to play Cranbury-Plainsboro at North Trenton.
FLORENCE
Although it made the District 12 Final Nine last season, an injury to pitching star Kendrell David prevented the Florence 12-Year-Old Little League All-Star baseball team from competing for a District 12 championship.
While this year’s final roster was not made available by press time, Florence is expected to, once again, field a very competitve 12-year-old Little League All-Star baseball team this tournament. This year’s Florence 12’s will be managed by Kevin Minton. Last year’s club was managed by Tom Karwowski.
This year Florence will be competing in Pool A with Lawrence, Chambersburg, Princeton, Sunnybrae and West End. 17 teams are scheduled to compete for a District 12 title this year. The Final Nine will be held at Nottingham.
Florence is scheduled to open pool play with a home game versus Lawrence next Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. Next Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., Florence is scheduled to play West End at Chambersburg. On June 27th at 6:00 p.m., Florence is scheduled to play Sunnybrae at Lawrence. Then at 10:00 a.m. on June 28th, Florence is scheduled to play Princeton at Princeton. It should be a fun Little League season in Florence. It always is.
