2001 Summer Teams

Montville Wins Millburn League Playoffs

not all players pictured above

The Montville 8yr olds finished in 1st place in the tough Millburn league finals (10 teams).  Montville entered the Millburn league with two equal teams sharing one team spot.  Montville managed to finish 2nd overall in their division and qualified for the playoffs.  Then the two team became one big playoff team.  Montville hung on to win the opener against Livingston 15-13 in extra innings.  Brian Keane was the hero coming in with the bases loaded, two outs in the bottom of the 6th with the score tie 13-13.  Brian struck out the batter to end the inning.  Montville scored 2 and Brian closed down Livingston in the bottom of the 7th to help Montville advance to the finals.  Key two out hits by Ryan Karl and Troy Zbieg helped Montville pull out to an 8 to 2 lead early in the game. In the Finals Montville edged Millburn 15-12. Montville trailed the entire game and was loosing  9-4 in the top of the 6th.  Montville scored 11 runs (the 6th inning is the only inning you can score more than 5 runs) and Brain Keane came in to close down Millburn in the bottom of the 6th to help the Montville 8yr olds win their first ever title 15-12.

This is the first season that Montville had  8 year old traveling baseball.  There were no tryouts before the season.  The kids/parents were given an opportunity to play in either a traveling league with hardballs and kids pitching, or play in a coach/kid pitch league with all home games.  approx 25 boys signed up for both divisions making the 8 yr old "Boys of Summer" a big hit.  The experience gained by each player was terrific, the coaches got to see the players in serious competition which will really help for next year's draft, and the kids got to make even more friends.  Aside from the issues dealing with the final 2 playoff games and who should play,  the season was a big hit.  If anyone has any complaints about how things were run or about any coaches or parents, please email them to Don.  As the coordinator I would like to thank all the coaches this season for your patience, understanding and support in helping all the kids enjoy baseball, and I look foreword to working with all of you in the future.

Montville 2001 8 Yr Old  Kid Pitch Division

Montville 2001 8 Yr Old  Coach/Kid Pitch Division

teams will be picked next week