2002 B Teams

Championship Game
The Montville U9 "B" team All-Stars came up with a fitting ending to their
outstanding season. They captured the championship of the New Providence
league by defeating Chatham 10-3 on wed.night.Chris Czapla started on the
mound for Montville and pitched 3 solid innings, giving up only two runs on
3 hits with 4 strikeouts. A first inning rally by Chatham was thwarted by
Brett Hanlon in centerfield as he alertly threw out a runner at second base,
with the bases loaded and two outs. This ended the inning and stopped arun
from scoring on the force out. Montville raced out of the gate in the first
as Mike Polizzi and Brett walked.They both stole a base and were knocked in
by Nick DeChino and Jesse Alexander . Pat McNamara followed with a hard hit
grounder to short that scored the third run. Montville 3-0 after 1...Chatham
scored 1 run in the 2nd on two hits and after 1 1/2 innings it is now
Montville up 3-1...Montville scratched a run in the second as Brett singled
hard to center and as they tried to throw him out at first, the ball got
away and he circledthe bases..4-1 Montville after 2...Chatham scored another
run in the 3rd on an error and a well hit single to right field. Montville
kept the pressure on in the 3rd as they came up with 3 runs. Ryan Karl lead
off with a single, followed by walks to Nick, Jesse,Pat,Carmine Teodoro and
Mike. End of 3 Montville 7 Chatham 2.....Ryan Karl now came in to pitch and
he was overpowering. He threw the last 3 innings to close the game out and
struck out 7 of the 9 outs he faced. Meanwhile Montville scored 3 more in
the 4th to put the game out of reach. Chris Czapla lead off with a single ,
followed by a walk to Ryan. Nick lined a single to center for an RBI and
Jesse did the same. Pat walked, followed by another to Sean DeNegris on a
great at bat, as he fouled off 6 pitches to claim the walk. Chris Cerami
knocked in the final run of the day and all that was left was for Ryan to
finish off Chatham and claim their CHAMPIONSHIP...    Ryan did this in
fine fashion as he struck out 6 batters in the last two innings to claim
victory......MONTVILLE 10   CHATHAM 3....

Montville 9B played in the Millburn tournament this weekend. In the first
game, they played and lost to Bernardsville 5-3.Montville out hit them 8 to
5 and left seven on base but made 8 errors which led to 5 unearned runs.

Chris Czapla and Ryan Karl turned in very solid pitching performances
limiting Bernardsville to 5 hits , 2 walks and struke out 7. Jesse Alexander
and Nick DeChino turned in solid defensive performances. Montville's offense
was led by Pat McNamara who had two hits including a perfect bunt single.

Montville played Westfield in the second game and lost 20-4. Montville
played flat and gave up 19 walks, made 3 errors and gave up 6 hits. Even
when Montville did something good things went wrong. For example, with a
runner on second and the game still within reach Jesse Alexander made a
great play in left field to keep a line drive from going through for an
extra base hit and made an excellent throw to Ryan Karl who tagged the
runner out at the plate but the ump called the runner safe because the third
baseman interferred with the runner.Offensively Brett Hanlon led the way
with two hits.

This weekend was a great experience for our kids. They played against A
level competition and learned alot. The team was led offensively by Brett
Hanlon who had three hits and had a 500% on base average. Jesse Alexander
and Mike Polizzi  had two hits each and had 500% on base averages. Ryan Karl
and Pat McNamara also had two hits each. Together this group accounted for
11 of our 14 hits.MOntville's record is now 4-2 but they are still in first
place in the New Providence league and play the teams they are tied with -
Baskingridge three times in the next 10 days.

Montville 9B continued playing very solid baseball and improved their record
to 4-0 last night by beating Berkley Heights 12-8. Chris Czapla and Connor
Fleishell turned in very strong pitching performances by combining for three
shutout inings and striking out 5. Carmine Teodoro came in with the bases
loaded and two out in the 6th ining and struke out the batter to save the
game.The team also had outstanding defensive efforts from Jesse
Alexander,Chris Cerami,Connor Fleishell and Chris Czapla.
Brett Hanlon and Chris Czapla led the offensive attack with two hits each
and Brett also drove in two runs. Connor Fleishell had a two run double and
Carmine Teodoro had a two run single. Montville's high potent offense has
now scored 61 runs in 4 games.

Montville 9B improved to 3-0 as they beat Westfield B 19-4.Chris Czapla,Brett Hanlon, Chris Cerami and Jesse Alexander combined to pitch a no hitter and fanned 9 batters. Extra base hits by Ryan Karl, Jesse Alexander, Sean DeNigris and Connor Fleishell led to 5 early runs and opened the game up for Montville. Chris Czapla had two hits and Nick Cinnella drove in three runs.

Montville 9B beat Westfield 19-3 Saturday to improve their record to 2-0. Brett Hanlon and Ryan Karl had two hits each and combined for 5 RBI's in leading the 11 hit attack. Connor Fleishell and Mike Polizzi had 3 RBI's each. Ryan Karl, Nick DeCino and Carmine Teodoro combined to limit Westfield to one hit while striking out 10 in a 4 ining game.

Montville 9B team got off to a terrific start last night by beating Chatham 11-1. Dominant pitching and timely hitting were keys to their success. 5 pitchers ( Chris Czapla, Ryan Karl, Brett Hanlon, Carmine Teodoro and Connor Fleishell) limited Chatham to one unearned run and two hits while striking out 13.  Montville's offense was led by Nick DeCino who had two hits and two RBI's including a clutch double in the 5th ining when Montville exploded for 6 runs. Carmine Teodoro had a key double which drove in three runs in the third ining to give Montville a 4-0 lead. Chris Czapla also drove in two runs.

Congratulations 12U Montville National New Providence League Champions!
12U National Wins New Providence League
After a great season (14-7 record) and a very exciting playoff series, the 12U National Team pulled out a great win over Branchburg to win the New Providence League Championship with a score of 6- 4.  During the season the hitting on this team was unstoppable.  They averaged 14 hits a game with only 4 strike outs a game.   Leading the team in batting averages was Andrew Lombardi (636), Joe Grieco (627), Kyle Ackerman (544) and Matt Maiello (500). Leading the team in RBI's was Joe Grieco (35) and Andrew Lombardi (28).  Andrew had 3 home runs for the season, while Kyle, Matt and John Capo each had 1 home run.  Mario Rivera's clutch bunting helped break open many games.  In pitching Kyle Ackerman had an unbelievable 96 total strike outs for the season and Joe Grieco had a total of 37 strike outs.  The fielding was awesome.  There was the game ending double-play with Kyle to TJ Kruger to James Graceffo.  Phenomenal catches in t! he outfield made by Joey Azar and Michael Regan helped to shut down many opponents.

Montville 3    Berkeley Heights 2

Montville 12U National Team makes it to the Finals of the New Providence Summer Baseball League with a nail biting win over Berkeley Heights.  The final score was 3 - 2.  An awesome catch in left field by Joey Azar, and a great play at the mound by Joe Grieco were just 2 excellent fielding plays by the team.  The bats stayed alive with hits by just about everyone.  And again the pitching was smoking.  Now it's onto Branchburg for the finals!

Playoff Game 4
Montville 13   Chatham 3

Way to go!  With this win we advance to the Semifinals!  The bats came alive last night with 18 hits and only 2 strikeouts.  The pitching was awesome.  What a way to end the game with a double play from Kyle to TJ to James.  Fantastic!

Playoff Game 3
Montville 4    Basking Ridge Gold 9

Playoff Game 2
Montville 9    Branchburg 10

Playoffs - Game 1

Montville 8
Berkeley Heights 2

A great win for round 1 of the playoffs!  The pitching was awesome today.  Great effort by Kyle Ackerman, Joe Grieco and Matt Maiello.  Congratulations to Andrew Lombardi for his third home run of the season!  Beautiful bunts by Mario Rivera and Joey Azar.  Now on to Branchburg!

Montville 18
Basking Ridge Green 1

What a way to end the regular season! Congratulations to everyone for taking this team to second place!!! The bats are flying, the fielding is unstoppable, the pitching is smoking.  Congratulations to John Capo for his first ever home run!  Now it's on to the playoffs!

Montville 11
Westfield Blue 0

Another outstanding game!  There were 2 excellent plays by Matt Maiello at short stop to James Graceffo at first.  Great throw Matt and spectacular catches James! Kyle Ackerman's pitching was smoking tonight. The hitting continued with an in the park homer by Matt Maiello, 3 doubles by Andrew Lombardi, and a double and 2 singles by Joe Grieco.

Montville 13  Westfield White 7

Three homers added to the excitement of this game.  Congratulations to Andrew Lombardi (his first this season!) and Matt Maiello (his first!) for out of the park homers and to Kyle Ackerman for his in the park homer!  The entire team is hitting and fielding great this season.  With a record of 7 - 3, and only 2 regular season games remaining, we are looking good for the playoffs!

Montville 12, New Providence 4
Basking Ridge Green 7  Montville 6
Summit 0  Montville 20
Branchburg 9  Montville 6
Basking Ridge Gold 10  Montville 6
Basking Ridge Gold 5  Montville 18
7/2 - Montville 16, Berkeley Heights 11
7/3 - Montville 9, Chatham 3
Montville 9  Basking Ridge White 5