Eastern NY Cal Ripken 12 year old All-Stars

One tough inning mars great effort in tourney opener

By RICHARD A. ROSS

FREMONT CENTER, NY — From their intensity and spirit, you’d never know they had only three practices to prepare for their first game of the Eastern New York Cal Ripken All-Star Tournament game against Beacon on June 30. But one thing was clear from the beginning, the Sullivan County 12-year-old All-Star team playing in the South 1 region and made up of players from Fremont Center, Jeffersonville, Livingston Manor and Roscoe had winning on their minds. After a sterling rendition of the Star Spangled Banner sung by Shawn Bailey and words of encouragement from head coach Scooter Lovgren and assistant coaches Jim O’Connor and Tony Fredo, the young men in green took to the field and played like champs.

Cody Fredo took the mound for Sullivan County, pitching against Beacon, who had demolished Marlboro 12-0 the day before. Fredo pitched four innings and was dominant, spotting his fastball and striking out six. Aside from a long triple surrendered to Beacon’s Tyler Gerkon, Fredo kept Beacon mostly at bay, including slugger Jose Espinal, whom he struck out twice.

Sullivan County got on the board in the bottom of the first inning after Troy Edwards was walked and was driven in by a Fredo triple.

Fredo pitched three shutout innings before the fatal fourth when hits, errors and a series of fielding miscues led to a lengthy Beacon outing at the plate and five-run fourth inning staking Beacon to a 5-1 lead. Fredo was replaced by Edwards in the top of the fifth. Edwards pitched a scoreless fifth but a combination of bloop hits and shaky fielding led to another two Beacon runs.

The Sullivan County team had a genuine threat going in the bottom of the sixth. Brandon Smith reached on an error but was cut down trying to reach third base on Edwards’ single. Fredo singled, and Erik Lovgren worked out a walk to load the bases. And then Ryan Alsdorf plated the inning’s only run on a fielder’s choice. Patrick Gram struck out and the game ended in 7-2 loss for the Sullivan County team.

Despite the outcome, the game had its share of positives including Fredo’s pitching, a great throw-out to third base by Gram to Smith, a last inning-ending double play and the gutsy play by the never-say-die county kids, who are bound to win their share of games in the round-robin tournament against Fishkill, Marlboro, New Paltz, Highland Falls and Kent. The top two teams in the tournament advance to the state tournament. The competing teams’ ultimate dream is to reach the Babe Ruth League World Series, held this year in Aberdeen, Maryland from August 12 to 21.

“Fantastic job!” Lovgren said to his players. “Take what you learned tonight and put it back on the field tomorrow,” he added. Referring to Beacon, Lovgren told his kids, “We’ve given this team the best run they’ve had in this tournament so far.”

The Sullivan County kids kept their heads up as they left the field believing that the next games on the schedule were bound to produce their share of wins.

Playing in the Cal Ripken Division of the nationally renowned Babe Ruth League which came into being in 1951, these kids are following a great tradition that has led once-talented small fry players to the major leagues including the likes of John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves, Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees, Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox and of course the iron man himself, Cal Ripken, retired legend of the Baltimore Orioles.

What separated those players and the countless other Babe Ruth League alumni from the rest of the pack?

Heart, desire and skills.

Watching these kids play in the twilight of a summer night, this sportswriter couldn’t help but feel that many of these kids embodied the exact same qualities.