On Sunday, July 10, the Mineola 12u Hurricanes, sponsored by Bolla Market, took the Ripken Baseball Experience at Aberdeen, MD, by storm for the annual week-long “Blue Crab Tournament.” The Blue Crab tournament is a very competitive tournament that drew 23 teams from 12 states including California and Florida. There was even a team from Ontario, Canada entered in this year’s tournament. The teams competed on fields that replicate historic ballparks: Fenway Park, Memorial Stadium, Wrigley Field, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park & Camden Yards. Coach Rich Macchietto knew the competition would be tough but he felt his team was up to the challenge.
“Some of the teams we played are so called “club” travel teams that have hundreds of players tryout from a large region or even statewide. We knew we had to play every game at an elite level to compete,” said Macchietto.
The tournament began with a family picnic that included players, coaches and their families at Ripken Stadium, home of the Baltimore Orioles affiliate the Ironbirds Short A team. The teams met the tournament ambassador, former MLB player Cliff Floyd and had a team picture taken with him. The opening festivities continued with the boys entering Cal Ripken Senior’s replica Camden Yard to the song “Rock You Like A Hurricane” by the Scorpions. The boys then listened to a very inspirational talk given by Floyd about sports and life. After the opening ceremonies, every boy participated in a skills competition against players from the other teams.
The first skills competition was the “golden spikes” in which the boys were timed running the bases twice. The players ran a player relay from home to second and then another player from second to home. The Hurricanes were represented by Connor Eakin, John Giufree, AJ Henriques and Kevin Pusey. The Hurricanes placed eighth out of 23 teams. The next event was the “home-run derby” and the Hurricanes entered Blake Bastos as their representative. Bastos place third out of 23 teams, earning 11 points in this thrilling competition. Bastos, a Hurricane catcher/pitcher described the home run derby, “I felt like an MLB player during the home run derby and how perfect all the fields were kept… this was the best experience ever!”
The team then was challenged in the timed “double play” competition. The Hurricanes were challenged to turn four double plays starting at each infield position. The Hurricanes entered Patrick O’Gara, Vin Othman, Phil Macchietto, Patrick Solosky and Dominic Ferreira. The Hurricanes finished fifth out of the 23 teams. The final skills event was an outfield “cut-off” drill in which the players competed against another team in a playoff to see who could retrieve and throw a baseball to home plate the fastest. The Hurricanes were represented by Chris Marotta and Jack Mackay. The Hurricanes made a great run but were eliminated by just a split-second.
On Monday, July 11, the Hurricanes opened tournament play against the Somerdale Bandits of Somerville, NJ on a replica Wrigley Field. The Hurricanes came out with bats blazing and took the first game 11-1. Coach Macchietto was impressed by the players drive and confidence. “My team could have been intimidated by these powerhouse travel teams but they felt right from the start that they belonged and it showed,” said Macchietto.
On Tuesday, July 12, the Hurricanes faced stiff competition from the Detroit Diamond Jaxx from Chesterfield, MI, on a replica former Baltimore Orioles Memorial Field and the River Bandits of Franklin, PA, on a replica Fenway Park. Despite strong pitching and excellent defense, the Hurricanes could not get their bats going and lost to the Jaxx, 10-1 and to the River Bandits, 11-2.
The players and their families then enjoyed an Aberdeen Ironbirds vs. the New York Met affiliate Brooklyn Cyclones minor league “short A” game at Ripken Stadium. Naturally, the New York-based Hurricanes cheered loudly for the visiting Cyclones and they were not disappointed as the Cyclones took the victory.
On Wednesday, July 13, the Hurricanes once again played a double-header against the Wickliffe Baseball League team from Wickliffe, OH on the replica Wrigley Field and the EMW Tribe from Elma, NY on the crown jewel of the complex, replica Camden Yards. The Hurricanes bounced back hard from the previous day and split the double-header with a victory against Wickliffe 4-2 and a loss to eventual tournament finalist EMW 9-4. Jack Mackay, Hurricane outfielder and pitcher exclaimed, “My best memory was getting the opportunity to pitch at replica Fenway Park. I felt like a major leaguer!” Patrick O’Gara, Hurricane 3rd baseman and pitcher remarked, “Playing on the Cal Sr. field and stadium felt like the real deal of baseball”.
On Thursday, July 14, the boys were playing for a final tournament playoff spot versus the Makos of Martha’s Vineyard at replica Nationals Park. Under intense heat and humidity, the Hurricanes grinded hard but fell by a score of 8-2, for a final tournament record of 2-4 and missing the tournament playoffs by a single victory. Nonetheless, the Hurricanes were the talk of the tournament as they were the highest seeded “town”-based travel team as opposed to the regional/statewide teams. Many of the club travel team’s coaches and players complimented the play of the Hurricanes.
“We do not usually see this caliber of play from a small town team,” commented EMW Tribe Coach Pat Degrace. “When we found out Mineola was such a small program we were very impressed at their level of play.”
The Hurricanes finished the tournament activities with a team/family dinner at the Green Turtle restaurant in Aberdeen, MD. The players and the families joined together with a sense of pride on how well they represented Mineola. The evening ended with laughter and lifetime memories.
As a final tournament gift, each player was awarded a tournament ring based on the Major League Baseball’s World Series ring.
As the Hurricane players returned to Long Island with baseball memories of a lifetime, they are eager to continue their summer season and build on the success they achieved at Ripken. This year’s Hurricane roster consists of Phil Macchietto, AJ Henriques, Patrick O’Gara, Patrick Solosky, Blake Bastos, Vin Othman, Tristan Dougherty, Jack Mackey, Dominic Ferreira, Conor Eakin, Kevin Pusey, John Giufree and Chris Marotta.
—Submitted by the Mineola 12u Hurricanes
