HEADING TO NEW JERSEY FOR EASTERN REGIONAL TOURNAMENT AUGUST 7

 The Quincy Youth Baseball 14-u travel all-star team won the Massachusetts State championship in the Junior division (ages 13-14) of Little League Baseball. They have earned the right to travel to Freehold, New Jersey on August 7, where they will compete in the Eastern Regional Tournament against state champions from Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the host team. According to some baseball historians, this is the first time since 1975 that a baseball team from Quincy earned the right to travel to a tournament outside of the New England states.

The winner of the 10 team double elimination tournament will be flown by Little League from New Jersey to Taylor, Michigan for the Junior league World Series which features 10 teams; 5 from the USA 5 from all over the world.

In 1975, the Morrisette Legion team coached by Ray Cattaneo, won the state and eastern regional legion baseball tournament and traveled to South Dakota where they participated in the American Legion World Series.

The Quincy 14-u had to do it the hard way as twice they fought back in the losers bracket to claim the state championship. That forced them to have to win two games in a row in the sectional championship versus Auburn and then again in the state championship against North Reading.

The state championship series was held in beautiful LeLacheur Park in Lowell, home of the Red Sox single a team, the Lowell Spinners. Playing in LeLacheur Park, which many consider to be second only to Fenway Park in New England was a great thrill for the Quincy boys. After sweeping a thrilling doubleheader against Auburn in a game that ended at 11pm the QYB 14-u had to return to the field in Lowell at noon the very next day. Forced to play 3 grueling games in less than 24 hours took its toll as a tired Quincy team dropped the first game of the series by a score of 10-9. Quincy took an early 3-0 lead only to see the hard hitting North Reading team come storming back with three runs in the second, two in the third and four in the fourth to take a seemingly commanding 9-3 lead. To their credit Quincy dug deep and staged a valiant comeback when they scored five runs in the fifth and one in the sixth on a perfect suicide squeeze by Andrew “Co Co” Currie to tie the game. Other offensive stars included Jason Pekkinen and Pat Verhault (3 hits each), Andrew Jaehnig and Mike Gallotto (2 hits each ) and Matt Davis, Rudy Tryon and Tom McDonald who also hit safely. Unfortunately North Reading scored the winning run in the next inning and a tired and disappointed group of Quincy player and fans made the long trip back to Quincy.

A rested Quincy team returned to Lowell the next day and put on an awesome offensive display as they trounced the North Reading team 23-6. First inning singles by Tryon, and Verhault, and a fielders choice by Mike Gallotto loaded the bases and back to back 2 run doubles by McDonald and David Joyce made the score 4-0. With two out Andrew “Jiggins” Jaehnig cracked a shot just over the shortstop’s head to drive in two more to make the score 6-0. North Reading aided by a couple of questionable calls at first base answered back with 4 runs of their own to make the score 6-4 after a wild first inning. Quincy added one run in the second when Gallotto (3 hits 4 Rbi) doubled in Verhault (4 for 4 with 5 runs scored). They took advantage of some sloppy defense in the fourth when 3 errors, a Verhault single and a McDonald (3 for 4) double scored 4 runs for Quincy.  The Quincy squad blew the game open with a 7 run fourth. Dan Cobban, Matt Davis and Jaehnig (2 for 2) had the big rbi hits in the inning. They scored 5 more in the fifth when Andrew Currie and Josh Hayward joined the hit parade. Dan Cobban survived a shaky first inning to record the victory on the mound, his third win of the tournament .

This set up a one game winner-take-all contest for the Massachusetts state championship. Fortunately for Quincy, we had big Tom McDonald (6 innings 9 strikeouts 2 hits 1 walk) on the hill who improved his playoff pitching record to 5-0 with a dominant performance as Quincy was victorious by the score of 11-1. 

Quincy scored a run in the first with a walk, back to back stolen bases by super special pinch runner “CoCo” Currie and a wild pitch. A walk, a single by Jason Pekkinen, and a double steal put runners on second and third  with no outs. After 2 weak outs Quincy appeared on trhe verge of squandering a great scoring chance when Andrew Jaehnig lined a clutch 2 strike single up the middle for one run and Rudy Tryon smashed a

hanging curve into the left centerfield gap to score two more and make the score 4-0.  Quincy added a run in the fourth when a walk, stolen base and sac bunt set the stage for Josh Hayward’s sacrifice fly.

Quincy used some more small ball in the top of the fourth to stretch the lead to 6-0 with a Hayward walk, Pekkinen sac bunt and Tryon single. Four runs in the sixth inning keyed by Matt Davis, Josh Hayward and Dan Cobban rbi hits made the final score 11-1. After the disappointing loss in the first game of the series the Quincy offense woke up with a bang as they scored at least one run in each of the last eleven innings of the tournament. Unsung hero, Andrew Currie ended the 12 game tournament play with 23 stolen bases as “the special pinch runner”and went through 3 pairs of baseball pants with all of the sliding he had to do.

Members of the State Championship team are Dan Cobban, Andrew Currie, Matt Davis, Brian Fahey, Mike Gallotto, Josh Hayward, T J Hobin, Andrew Jaehnig, David Joyce, Tom McDonald, Jason Pekkinen, Mike Pugsley, Rudy Tryon and Patrick Verhault. Mark Jaehnig is the manger assisted by Paul Cedrone and Mike Joyce.