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Massapequa Coast 9-10 Year Old Team Conclude Run as Mid-Atlantic Champions

The Coast 9-10 Baseball team won 19 of 22 total games during an unprecedented season.

The Massapequa Coast 9-10 Year Old Little League team bested hundreds of other teams to get to the point they reached at the Regional tournament in Cranston, Rhode Island: Mid-Atlantic Champions.

The dominating 22-0 score for New York representative Massapequa Coast over Maryland’s Berlin LL was impressive yet unexpected. Despite falling to undefeated Connecticut representative Waterford South LL in the East Regional championship by a score of 11-1, it does not take away from the incredible feat in which these young players have accomplished.

“We left it all on their field in that Mid-Atlantic title game,” said Massapequa Coast head coach Paul DeGiovanni. “They just have that winning attitude in that even when they get down, they continue to battle back. They have proved to be very talented and have worked a lot on their skills over the last year."

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Massapequa Coast won 19 of their 22 games dating back to the District 31 tournament. After losing their first District game, Coast played out of the loser’s bracket to eventually win the tournament and didn’t look back from there. They moved on to win the Section 6 Long Island title following an and then the New York State title with a .

This team was the furthest any Massapequa Coast team aged 13 and under has advanced in the programs’ history. The last 9-10 year old unit to find nearly as much success was the team in 1998, who won the Long Island championship, but was eliminated in the State tournament soon after.

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After losing their first Regional Pool Play game to New Jersey’s Northfield LL by a 7-4 score, Coast was put into a position where they would likely need to win their next three games to ensure a spot in the Mid-Atlantic title game.

In their next game against the Canal LL team from Delaware, Nick Collins pitched the majority of the game to lead in a 1-0 win. A day later, Coast pushed through to a 9-3 victory over Middletown Athletic Association LL of Pennsylvania to hand the team their first loss. Eric Treble stepped into a big spot for Coast to nearly pitch a complete game as his team advanced to 2-1.

Playing for the third consecutive day, Coast tussled with Maryland’s Berlin LL. After trailing early in the game, Coast came back to take an eventual 5-3 lead with Dylan DeGiovanni pitching a solid outing on the mound. Maryland put up four runs in the top of the sixth to lead 7-5, but with one last turn at bat, Coast looked to make the most of the opportunity.

After the bases were loaded up, Nick Schneidler hit a groundball that found its way past third base after an errant throw, allowing two runs to score and knotting the game at 7-7. After an intentional walk, Anthony Patullo, who hit a clutch grand slam to seal the Long Island title, came through again with a walk-off single, giving Coast a memorable 8-7 win.

On Friday, Coast met Maryland again, this time for the Mid-Atlantic title. With their oppositions short on pitching due to prior games, Coast put up three runs in the first inning by way of hits from DeGiovanni, Collins and Matt Zanfardino. In the next inning, the team put up an astounding 12 runs. Patullo helped lead the offensive outburst, hitting three doubles and collecting four RBIs in the second and third innings alone to help his team lead 21-0 after seven more runs scored.

Despite the big 22-0 finals victory, Massapequa Coast was bested by Connecticut’s Waterford LL in the East Regional final, but their mark was already well implemented amongst the Little League community during this last week of the season.

“We won all different types of games here. We won come-from-behind games, close games throughout and won games by a landslide, like in the championship game,” DeGiovanni added.

Massapequa Coast looks to make another run to the East Regional title next year, where team tryouts are to be held in June 2012.

“On this team, 11 players equals one. They all play for each other, and without that, we wouldn’t have gotten it done,” concluded DeGiovanni on the historic run for the Massapequa Coast 9-10 Year Old team.

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