After an impressive end of June tournament in Baseball Heaven the week before, the Northeast Tribe 14U baseball team, made up of mostly players from the North Shore, including Roslyn, along with their coaches, Mike Filucco and Ryan Lennon, had high hopes for their chances in the Long Island Hot Stove Independence Day Showdown Tournament, held over the 4th of July holiday weekend.
In pool play beginning on Friday, the Tribe went undefeated with wins over the Levittown Cardinals (6 to 1) and the South Shore Elite (4 to 1). On Saturday, they continued their winning ways by beating the Long Island Gators 13 to 1 to secure a second overall ranking and a trip to the playoffs.
Needing just one playoff win to go to the championship game, the Tribe began the day on Sunday by beating a talented Bronx-based Grand Slam team 10 to 4.
In the championship game later that day, the Tribe faced the Bonnie Paws, a legendary Brooklyn-based club baseball team with players from Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
The game remained scoreless until the Bonnies scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning. In the top of the fifth however, the Tribe managed to tie the score at two, but came up short of winning the championship when they gave up two more runs in the fifth and one in the sixth inning, losing the game by a margin of 5 to 2.
Over the course of five games in just three days, the Tribe outscored their opponents by a total of 35 runs to just 12 runs against.
Congratulations to the players, coaches and the Northeast Tribe organization on this second place finish.
The Northeast Tribe 14U team members are: Will Allen, Joseph Brunetti, Christopher Carillo, Jack Degaudenzi, Chris Leary, Matthew Levine, Joseph LoCurto, Thomas Santella, Colby Schmidt, Jay Schlaefer, Jared Toby and Jeffrey Torborg.
