West Hartford Youth Baseball League Web Site: News

The Travel A Cannons defeated a very tough Hartford team 4-3 in a classic pitchers duel to win the Hungerford 12u Championship.

Both Marcel Diaz for Hartford and Sam Newton for the Cannons were outstanding, making for an extremely tight battle.

The win capped an undefeated run through the tournament for the Cannons.

Congratulations to both teams on a great tournament!

Click on the following link to view West Hartford Patch article on the game by Ken Lipshez http://westhartford.patch.com/articles/newton-fans-10-as-cannons-win-hungerford-final.

The Travel A Cannons completed an undefeated run through the 12u Nutmeg Games tournament with a 12-2 victory over the USBA Hurricanes.  This came on the heels of a 9-6 semi-final win over Ridgefield earlier in the day.

In pool play, the Cannons defeated Fagan-New Britain 10-0, the Hurricanes 6-4, and the Simsbury Mustangs 20-1.

The WHYBL is pleased to announce that R.J. Michaels from Cornelius Insurance and Stephen Laffin from Venora Electric have won the annual Jack Flattery award.  The Jack Flattery award was established in 1991 to honor Jack Flattery who served in the league for 22 years as a Major League manager.  

The award is presented each year to one Major League player from the American and National League.  The players are chosen by the managers from their respective leagues.  The player is selected because he or she demonstrates good citizenship, sportsmanship, leadership with his peers and baseball ability.

The 2011 National League All Stars bested the American League All Stars 11-4 in the annual WHYBL 12 year old all star game Saturday night at before an overflowing crowd at Wolcott Park.  The 12 year old game was preceded by the first ever “Futures Game”, a Minor League All-Star game showcasing the future talent of the WHYBL.  The game, part of the WHYBL All Star Weekend, was also preceded by a Friday night skills competition that all 12 year old players in the league took part in.  
 
Michael Mathews got the start for the American League and proceeded to retire the National League in order in the 1st. Justin Bernheimer got the start for the NL, and worked out of a bases loaded 1 out jam in the inning, getting help on a nifty catch in RF by Christian Lund, who snared a line drive down the line off the bat of Graham Struthers.  The Americans broke through with 2 runs in the 2nd on a single by Trevor Krupp and a double by Richard Hansen, who both eventually scored on a National miscue.  Aidan Costello also had a hit in the inning for the Americans.  Bernheimer escaped further damage by striking out the next two hitters.  Danny Roth (NL) and Connor Swanton (AL) both pitched a scoreless third for their teams, and Roth blanked the AL again in the 4th while Alexander Farrah pitched a scoreless 4th for the AL to leave the score at 2-0 AL through 4.  Roth was helped by two nice defensive plays from Kyle McGoldrick to keep runners off base, and a double play turned in by Antonio Masse and Colin Campagna.  Masse made a nice running catch in CF and fired to Campagna to double off a runner at 3rd.
 
In the 5th, the National League stars came alive to score 4 runs to take a 4-2 lead.  A walk to Tim Dickson started the inning.  Derek Berube then smashed a home run to right to tie the score and give the NL stars something to build on.  Not done, Nick LeConche singled, and Stephen Laffin and Anthony Giannone had consecutive hits in the inning.  The Nationals scored 5 more in the 6th to push the lead to 9-2.  Declan Flaherty singled to center to start things.  Tim Dickson was then hit by a pitch, and Kevin Hurley followed with a single to left to load the bases.  LeConche then ripped a double to left to score 2 runs, and 2 batters later Giannone unloaded with a towering, sky high 3 run home run deep into the night at Wolcott Park to put a stamp on the inning.
 
Meanwhile, the National pitching was dominant.  Berube pitched a scoreless 5th, striking out the side and LeConche recorded 4 strikeouts in 2 innings of work.  The AL did push across a run in the 6th on a Sam Newton triple to dead center, who later scored on a wild pitch.  With the score 9-3, the Nationals widen the lead by 2 in the 8th on a leadoff home run from LeConche, a single by Laffin, a walk to Jack Barry and a RBI single by Mike Verrengia.  The Americans escaped further damage in the inning on nice defensive work from Torrie Green and Henry Fisher, who both showed tremendous range in the infield to take away sure hits. 
 
With an 11-2 lead, the National League turned to Mike Verrengia to close out the game. The tall right hander yielded an RBI single from Scott Riley following two walks, but then settled in to strikeout 4 of the next 6 hitters to close out the victory for the Nationals.

The WHYBL held its first ever 12 year old All-Star Skills Competition on Friday night to kick-off All-Star weekend.

All 12 year olds were eligible to participate in three separate events: (1) Roadrunner - fastest time around the bases; (2) Golden Arm - three throws from centerfield to a wooden target placed at home plate; and (3) Home Run Derby.

The event was a smashing success as over 60 12 year olds participated in front of a capacity crowd at Wolcott.  League photographer Scott Caricato was there to catch it all and pictures will be posted in the coming days.

The atmosphere built throughout the night as the Roadrunner competition was first which Matt Litchfield from A.C. Petersen won, followed by the Golden Arm in which R.J. Michaels from Cornelius Insurance beat Clayton Barnes from Berry Insurance in a throw off.  Finally, the Home Run Derby took center stage and balls were launched into the night sky and the Wolcott Pond.  The 20 player field narrowed to 5 after the 1st Round as Connor Swanton from Rotary (3 HR), Josh Baboff from Modern Tire (3 HR's), Anthony Giannone (3 HR's), Stephen Laffin (4 HR's), both from Venora Electric and Scott Riley (5 HR's) from Lions Club advanced to the Finals.  In the Finals, Laffin (6 HR's) put on a tremendous display to all fields and just missed two additional home runs to beat team Giannone (4 HR's) for the win.

1st and 2nd place winners received trophies.  Here is the list of winners:

Roadrunner

1) Matt Litchfield - A.C. Petersen

2) Sam Newton - Mr. Trophy

Golden Arm

1) R.J. Michaels - Cornelius Insurance

2) Clayton Barnes - Berry Insurance

Home Run Derby

1) Stephen Laffin - Venora Electric

2) Anthony Giannone - Venora Electric 

In a historic game, and the first time in WHYBL's 60 year history a Minor League all star game was held at Wolcott Park. The game started with a great defensive plays from American league player Brian Rodriquez when he made a great play at second base and Patrick Mahon made a great running catch in centerfield to end the inning and prevent the National League from scoring in the top of the first.  AL's Andrew Wendorff, Patrick Mahon, Peter Simplicio and Matt Lazor were issued walks and Jay Falvey, Brian Rodriguez and Zander Boehm got RBI hits and pushed 5 runs across the plate to take an early 5-0 lead.  Rodriguez made another great play at second base preventing a hit by Andrew Skwiot.  Timmy Andrews hit a triple for the National league's first hit and Andrew Lagoy walked then Nate Skuba and Jack Livingstone got RBI hits to score 3 runs and NL's Peter Simplicio made several great plays at first base to prevent more runs from being scored and kept it to a 5-3 game.

AL's Noah Matalan led off the bottom of the third inning with a hit and Sam Kursman recorded a walk, Jack McGovern and John Cashman got singles to score Matalan and Kursman. McGovern and Cashman scored in the inning as well to extend the lead to 9-3 after three innings.  NL's Nathan White led off the top of the 4th inning with a shot over the left fielders head to the wall for a double and Will Layden, Thomas Costello, Griffin Van Rye, Andrew Skwiot and Timmy Andrews got hits and Tim Cotter walked to score 5 runs to bring it to a 9-8 game.  In the bottom of the fourth inning, NL pitcher Tim Cotter struck out the first batter he faced, got the next batter to pop out to him, and got a ground out to himself and flipped over to first baseman Costello for the third out. 

Andrew Lagoy led off the fifth inning with a double then Nate Skuba got a single and Anthony Mancini walked scoring Lagoy to tie the game 9-9.  NL pitcher Jack Livingstone struck out the side in the bottom of the inning to keep the game tied.  Nathan White walked and later scored on a Will Layden hit to take the first lead of the game 10-9.  NL's Will Fox struck out 3 of the 4 batters he faced to preserve the lead going into the final inning.  Griffin Van Rye led off the seventh inning with a single and Andrew Skwiot and Timmy Andrews got hits to score two more runs and take a 12-9 lead into the bottom of the inning.  NL's Van Rye pitched the final inning striking out the first 2 batters he faced, then allowed a single and a walk and struck out the final batter for the NL win.

Hitting stars for the National league were Timmy Andrews going 3 for 3,  Will Layden, Griffin Van Rye, Andrew Skwiot and Nate Skuba all had 2 hits a piece, and Thomas Costello, Andrew Lagoy, Jack Livingstone and Nathan White had hits.   Hitting stars for the American league were Patrick Mahon, Jay Falvey, Brian Rodriguez, Zander Boehm, George Andrews, Noah Matalon, Sam Kursman, Jack McGovern and John Cashman had hits. 

Pitching for the NL were Thomas Costello, Anthony Mancini, Nate Skuba, Andrew Skwiot, Tim Cotter, Jack Livingstone, Will Fox and Griffin Van Rye.  Pitching for the AL were Carl Nicklas, George Andrews, Brian Rodriguez, Jack McGovern, Andrew Wendorff, Peter Simplicio and Chase Maxwell.