After Setbacks, the Kids Were Back to Chasing Fireflies

The players on East Hampton Little League’s 11-12 and 9-10 traveling all-star baseball teams were depressed for a minute or two after having been eliminated from contention in regional games this past week, but in no time, their coaches, Ken Dodge and Mike Hand, said, they were running the bases, sliding into home, drinking Gatorade, and chasing fireflies.

Bonac’s older team, which had bageled the North Shore Americans 9-0 here on July 10, improving its postseason record to 6-1, lost in the District 36 championship game in Riverhead two days later, by a score of 4-1. 

The younger ones, who had the week before won their second District 36 title in a row, advanced to Section IV’s double-elimination tournament, but lost 11-10 to Sayville in Oakdale on the 10th, and 15-8 to East Meadow in Dix Hills last Thursday.

Neither Dodge nor Hand said their kids had anything to feel bad about, for they had given it their all. 

Jack Dickinson struck out 14, and Tyler Hansen’s two run-scoring hits, a double in the first inning and a single in the second, got the 11-12s off on the right foot in the game with North Shore. A four-run fifth extended East Hampton’s lead to 9-0, which, as aforesaid, was the final score.

The elder Dodge went with his son, Zach, and Nico Horan-Puglia in the game at Riverhead, Dickinson having reached his maximum pitch count. And while they each had pitched well, “Riverhead’s kid [who struck out 12] was lights out. He had a no-hitter going until Milo [Tompkins] singled in the sixth and Tyler drove him in. . . . They beat us, pure and simple, though if it had been two-of-three who knows. One more win and they’ll be going to the states.”

The Little League sectional losses aside, Dodge’s charges remained as of earlier this week in contention to win a Brookhaven summer league 12-and-under title. The Little League playoffs had caused him, he said, to forfeit several of those summer league games, though as of Monday the Tomahawks were 5-7 with two doubleheaders yet to play before the playoffs were to begin.

Andrew Brown, said Hand, the 9-10s’ coach, “pitched a fabulous game for us against Sayville,” but things began to unravel after Brown, having reached his pitch limit, had to come out with one out and one on in the fifth. Nothing seemed to work after that. “Sayville started to put the ball in play — everyone was hitting it. They tied it in the sixth, and scored two more in the seventh. We scored a run in our seventh — we were the ‘home’ team — and had the winning run on second with no outs, but couldn’t get it done. It was a wonderful game against a very good team. That’s the way it is. The umpire told us afterward that we were the better team for five innings.”

East Hampton, it should be said, was the last of three 9-10 Little League teams standing in Suffolk — “us, Sayville, and Half Hollow Hills. We had to beat all three.”

“We went on to lose 15-8 to East Meadow, a Nassau team, but we hung with them. They went up 7-1, but we rallied back to tie it at 7-7. In the fifth they started hitting the ball into the gaps and over the heads of our outfielders. . . . They were the better team that day — they outplayed us. They were good sports too.”

“The next day, if we’d won, we would have had to drive to Westbury, and the way the traffic is now, you could say it was a blessing in disguise. . . .” 

“We did well against tough competition, we hung with the best of them, that’s what we can take from this,” Hand continued. “The future is bright — there’s a lot of baseball ahead. They’re a very friendly group, they have the desire, the ability, their attitudes are great . . . it’s been a great experience.”

With one game yet to play in the summer league (five of his Little Leaguers are on his 10-and-under Brookhaven league team) as of Monday, Hand said there’d be a break until the fall.

Asked if he had seen any signs of wear and tear when it came to his charges, who are playing most of the year round now, Hand said, “Not when it comes to the kids. Though,” he added, with a smile, “I’ve definitely seen wear and tear in the parents.”