Page 32 • Baseball The Magazine • Issue 4 2010

Whensum-mer

baseball is windingdown, the diamondsat the ESPN WideWorld of SportsComplex® at Disneywere heating up forthe youth Turn Backthe Clock Weekendon September 3rdthrough the 6th.Teams from all overthe country spenttheir Labor Dayweekend in theFlorida sun at the‘happiest place onearth’ playing someoutstanding baseball.

In the 8U, thePirates took thechampionship trophyby tying the MiramarYoung Guns 5-5 andthen went on to beatthe Coconut CreekHawks 13-10,Renegades 11-0 and8-6 and met the

at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex ®

Disney's Turn Back the ClockBack the Clock Weekend

Maple Zone Muckdawgs

Coconut Creek Hawks

Pirates

Miramar Young Guns

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Miramar Young Guns in the championship game. The Pirates contin-ued their punishment as they defeated the Young Guns 12-2 for thewin.

Eddy Bermudez of the 8U Miramar Young Guns said, “It was a greatexperience. We are looking forward to going back again next year forthe same tournament, when our kids are truly 8U. The competition wasreally good and everyone had a great time. Just like anything atDisney, it’s always good, and again congratulations to Puerto Rico.”

The final results for the 8U were 1. Pirates; 2. Miramar Young Guns;3. Central Florida Renegades; 4. Coconut Creek Hawks.

In the 10U bracket, the Maple Zone Muckdawgs took the winby defeating Riverdogs 14-2 then tying the Miami Sugarkings 7-7. The Muckdawgs would continue to win the next two gamesover the Coconut Creek Hawks 5-1 and Brandywine Bulldogs11-0. Continuing on their hit parade, the Muckdawgs took it tothe Brandywine Bulldogs in a second meeting 5-4 and theCoconut Creek Hawks 8-3 for the trophy.

Coach Nelson Diaz of the Coconut Creek Hawks told us,“The Hawks boys battled all weekend and played six games infour days, placing as the second seed in the championship

round for the Cal Ripken division. They walked awayproudly, claiming second place and the silver medal!

The Hawks tied their first game against the BrandywineBulldogs from Pennsylvania 6-6 after reaching the timelimit in the sixth inning Friday. Saturday the Hawks playeda tough double header losing game one to the strongMaple Zone Muckdawgs 5-1. The Hawks bounced backstrong in game two crushing the Riverdogs from SouthCarolina 11-1 by run ruling them with a walk off double byBrandon Diaz. Justin Conte, Antonio Wilson, and Brandon

at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex ®

Disney's Turn Back the ClockBack the Clock Weekend

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Florida Storm

Gulf Coast Mustangs

Mets Baseball Club

JJR Baseball Club

Diaz led the team offensively throughout this Labor Day tournament.Sunday the Hawks played fellow Premier team, the Miami Sugar Kings in

the final pool game winning 11 to 10 in a wild shoot out. The Hawks seededsecond and played the Sugar Kings again edging them in the first playoffgame 1-0. An outstanding pitching performance by Anthony Parrales sealedthe 1-0 victory with Anthony pitching a complete game.

The Hawks fought hard Monday morning but fell short losing to theMuckdawgs 8-3 tough gold medal round game. Outstanding pitching perform-ances came from Bastian Munoz, Bryce Costello, Joseph Amoroso, andAntonio Wilson. Solid fielding from Alex Skirvin, and Chris Ajello helped the

Page 36 • Baseball The Magazine • Issue 4 2010

at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex ®

Disney's Turn Back the ClockBack the Clock Weekend

team claim silver at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Way to go CreekHawks!”

The final results for the 10U were 1. Maple Zone Muckdawgs; 2.Coconut Creek Hawks; 3. Brandywine Bulldogs; 4. Miami Sugarkings.

The 11U bracket was swept by the Florida Storm who took out theMiami Sugarkings 9-0, Wolfpack 11-3, Virginia Phantoms 12-0, andthe McLean Nationals 12-2 to meet the Gulf Coast Mustangs for allthe marbles. The championship game was full of great action and inthe end the Florida Storm took the victory from the Mustangs with ascore of 7-3.

“The experiences we all had is the very best of any travel ball tour-naments we enter throughout the year, “ said Gene Letterio, managerof the Florida Storm. “The Disney personnel all go out of their way tomake this very organized and very enjoyable for players and their fam-ilies. One of the best compliments I can offer is that this year was asgood as last year’s experience. We’ve been in State Championships,Invitational tournaments, National tournaments and even took ourteam to Omaha this year to compete in a tournament during the sameweek the College World Series was being played. Not one of theseevents were run as good as the Turn Back the Clock event. The pre-organization by all the personnel, especially Kyle Cantrell, makes thisan event we will look forward to each year. It was our honor to be

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selected to be inthis and one wehope will continuenext year. We com-mend and thank allthose involved inmaking this event asuccess, from theregistration, thecoaches meeting,the conditions of thefields, the umpires,concessions, tour-nament directors,safety officers andthe constant assis-tance of helping usgetting to and fromparking and fields,we thank everyone.The band playingand walkingthroughout the facil-ity and merchandisetents were a bigbonus. It’s hard tosingle out some-thing, but since wewon our 11U divi-sion, I’d have to saythe awards cere-monies will standout in our minds fora long time. Theawards were the best we receive anywhere and then to add pictures, anannouncer, confetti and then a photo experience with Mickey Mouse. WOW!!!!what a weekend.”

The final results for the 11U were 1. Florida Storm; 2. Gulf Coast Mustangs;3. South Florida Knights; 4. McLean Nationals.

The Mets Baseball Club took control of the 12U bracket by beating theCoconut Creek Hawks 10-0, Mariners Saint Just 15-0, Nativos Summit Hills21-1, Potros 12-2 and JJR Baseball Club in the final game for all the braggingrights.

The final results for the 12U were 1. Mets Baseball Club; 2. JJR BaseballClub; 3. Potros; 4. Mariners Saint Just.

The New Orleans Renegades took over the 14U bracket by beating the St.Cloud Storm 11-0, Pinecrest Pumas 4-3, Kissimmee Chargers 16-0 and 13-2to meet the Pinecrest Pumas in a rematch for the trophy. The PinecrestPumas had a great showing but could only muster one run in the final gamefalling to the Renegades 2-1.

Dr. Frank Manteiga of the Pinecrest Pumas told us, “Our team was putback together early this summer. Most of the players have known each othersince they were about eight years old. They played at Disney when they wereten and now have returned to the Turn Back the Clock Weekend. We havethree players from the Key West area and eight players from the Miami area.We played five tournaments before this one and were Champions or Co-Champions in four out of the five tournaments and third place at Cooperstownin NY.

We don’t have the biggest players but play with a lot of heart and excellentchemistry. The Pumas’ record was 25-5 over the summer and have won manygames in the last inning with a “never give up attitude” that included grandslams, home runs, great pitching and great defense. This was true in one ofour games at ESPN Wide World of Sports. We were down by three runs in theseventh (last) inning. With two outs and two strikes on our batter, we wereable to mount a comeback and win the game. In our semifinal game our pitch-er (Victor Morrell) threw a no hitter to knock them out in 5 innings 10-0.

I wish I could mention everyone, because this was a team effort with a lotof great plays ranging from a grand slam by Eddie Cutillas to key homeruns by‘Mr. Clutch hitter,’ Chris Manteiga to incredible pitching by Ramon

Long Island Royals

Kissimmee Sox

Muhlenberg Mayhem

New Orleans Renegades

Pinecrest Pumas

Quintero...they all did amazing things this summer. As Itold the team...This will be a summer to remember. Wedid not expect this at all and we are truly grateful forthis great run of ours.”

The final results for the 14U were 1. New OrleansRenegades; 2. Pinecrest Pumas; 3. KissimmeeChargers; 4. St. Cloud Storm.

The excitement continued in the 16U bracket as theLong Island Royals defeated the Levittown Cardinals11-4, Kissimmee Sox 14-9 and 12-4, and theMuhlenberg Mayhem 10-4 en-route to the champi-onship game against the Levittown Cardinals. TheRoyals continued to play hard and won the final game6-1 for the trophy.

The final results for the 16U were 1. Long IslandRoyals; 2. Levittown Cardinals; 3. Kissimmee Sox; 4.Muhlenberg Mayhem.