Tuesday, August 17

Here we go again. For the fourth time in history at Toms River little league team is headed to the World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
and for the first team it’s a group of boys whose home turf are the fields on Mapletree Road. Toms River National captured the Mid-Atlantic Region championship with an 8-5 come-from-behind victory over Council Rock-Newtown, Pennsylvania in Bristol, Connecticut Monday night. After a shaky start winning pitcher Jeff Ciervo settled down and threw five solid innings and eventually the vaunted Toms River offense produced with Patrick Marinaccio and Michael Tiplady homering as past of the winning effort. For both teams last night the biggest problem at times was dealing with flying bugs which were everywhere and especially noticeable while watching the game on TV. Speaking of that I have to be honest in saying
that ESPN2 could have done better than using Bobby Valentine as the
so-called expert commentator. While I love the former Mets manager he offered nothing but glowing comments about everything associated with Little League baseball, including the umpiring which frankly I did not think was very good.

Anyway on to more important matters. The players, coaches and manager Paul Deceglie will now bus to Williamsport where the World Series officially begins on Friday with opening ceremonies and games. A total of 16 teams will compete over ten days….8 from the United State and 8 International squads. Toms River National plays their first game Saturday at 11am against Hamilton, Ohio. That game will not be televised but is available through espn.com and you can get the complete schedule for the World Series at www.littleleague.org. The other teams in “Pool A” that Toms River could play are from Georgia and Hawaii and it seems an understatement but that first game might be the key to their chances of having success in the tournament.

Toms River National is the first team from New Jersey to head to the World Series since Toms River East American lost in the US Championship game in 1999. That ended an incredible run which saw the Windsor Avenue league send three teams to Williamsport over a six-year span, including the 1998 team which won it all. All three were managed by Mike Gaynor.