Secaucus will host the New Jersey state Little League 12-year-old championships at Buchmiller Park beginning Thursday, July 26.
While unfortunately no local teams will be among the four competing for the state’s top team and a chance to head to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. next month, there is a Secaucus Junior Little League team that recently earned the town a baseball champion.
The Secaucus Little League Junior All-Stars, ages 13 and 14, recently won the District 7 tournament, defeating Hoboken in a best-of-three series.
“Most of the team had been Little League All-Stars in the past,” said John Young, who managed the team. “Every one of these kids attends the Secaucus Middle School.”
Young, a Hudson County Superior Court judge, bides his time in the summer coaching youth baseball. He said that the town made the move to play Junior Little League (on a conventional 90-foot base paths, 60-foot, six inch pitching mound) from Babe Ruth baseball a few years ago and the results have been staggering.
“We hope that there would be a better transition to the bigger field and it’s turned out that way,” Young said. “It’s a big jump from Little League, but we spend a lot of time running the bases and making the throws from shortstop and third to get the kids used to the bigger field.”
As for this particular All-Star team, Young knew he had the makings of a possible champion.
“I don’t think anyone is surprised at all with what this team has accomplished,” Young said. “We thought we had a pretty good team. We’ve been developing some good ball players in the town. This team played in a lot of leagues to get ready.”
Young said that the key to the team’s success has been the pitching depth.
“It’s all about pitching,” said Young, who is able to deal with the 95-pitch limit that Junior Little League places on its pitchers.
But the Secaucus team relied on its bats in the recent best-of-three with Hoboken, who won the first game of the championship series by a 9-6 margin, then Secaucus roared back to win 15-4 to set up the third and deciding game.
In Game 3, Hoboken jumped out to an early 8-1 lead.
“I told the kids as they came off the field down 8-1 that they had come back before,” Young said. “We just had to put some runs up like they did the game before.”
There was another offensive explosion, as Secaucus came home with a 20-10 victory that is more reminiscent of a football score.
“They all believed that they could win,” Young said. “That was the key.”
Leading the pitching staff was right-hander Larue Linder (now there’s an old school baseball name for you).
“Larue is a hard thrower who has nice off-speed stuff,” Young said. “He has a nice breaking pitch as well.”
A.J. Morris is another hard throwing righty who has a good changeup. The manager’s son, also named John, is a fastball/changeup thrower. Blake Thomas, one of the team’s 13-year-olds, is another quality hurler.
“His specialty is working the corners of the plate,” Young said of Thomas. “He’s unhittable when he hits his mark.”
The catcher is Dean Costantino, who is a fine defensive backstop.
“He’s tremendous,” Young said. “He had two pickoffs from behind the plate against Hoboken. He has a quick arm and he doesn’t get rattled at all behind the plate. He’s also a good hitter and one of our fastest kids.”
First base duties are shared between Alex Costantino, Dean’s twin brother, and Jack Spirito. Zander Orlando is the team’s second baseman.
The shortstop is slick fielding Joe Leon, who is also a good hitter.
“He’s the team’s No. 2 hitter in the order,” Young said. “He’s very fast and beats out a lot of bunts.”
John Young is the team’s third baseman.
“He’s a line drive hitter who finds a lot of gaps,” the manager said of his son.
Josh Pascale is the team’s left fielder.
“He’s the fastest kid on the team,” Young said. “He tracks balls all over the field. He’s a solid hitter who is able to turn singles into doubles.”
Centerfield duties are shared by pitchers Linder and Morris, depending upon who is pitching.
“Both hit for power,” Young said. “They’re very similar at the plate.”
Right field is handled by Dan O’Connor and Luke Fournier-Millevoi.
Joe Pepe, Marcus Linder (the younger brother of Larue) and Danny Pantoliano are reserve players. Pepe is a pitcher/centerfielder, the younger Linder is the team’s utility man (pitcher, catcher, left field and third base) and Pantoliano plays first base and right field.
The coaching staff includes Wayne Wolf and Kyle Thomas.
The team competed in the Section 2 tourney in Fort Lee against Saddle Brook, Nutley and host Fort Lee over the weekend.
Needless to say, Young is having a blast coaching this team, a Secaucus champion.
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