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The Bucks County Minutemen, a youth baseball team made up of players from various areas in Bucks County, won the 11U “The Walk Off Tournament” this past weekend, at Ripken Academy in Aberdeen Md. The team bested a pool with teams represented from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. 

The team started the tournament off hot, beating the Avon Grove Bulldogs 6 - 0, with one of those runs being scored on a great suicide squeeze bunt by Harrison Treiman. In that game the combined pitching of Richie Sichel, Gavin Ferrandino, and Danny Martinez held the bulldogs to only 1 hit, which was by virtue of a bunt. 

The second game for the Minutemen was much tougher, playing the SJ Warriors. The Warriors jumped out to a 2 - 0 lead in the bottom of the second; then adding 1 run in the third and 2 in the fourth, taking a 5 - 2 lead into the top of the sixth. But, the Minutemen never gave up and in their last at bat of the game scored 5 runs, with key at bats by Sichel, Smiley, Ferrandino, Nenner, Hoefer, Hitchcock and Massielo. 

The Minutemen took the field in the bottom of the 6th holding a 2 run lead. The leadoff hitter for the Warriors reached base on a single to left field. Then, with Massielo on the mound with a great move for a righty, coach Kutys called for a pickoff play to first - that worked. With that out recorded it then again gave the Minutemen some breathing room, which turned out to be much needed as the next batter doubled to deep CF, which surely would have scored that runner previously on first. The next batter then hit a deep fly ball to LC and just as it looked like it was going to hit the ground, sliding in came Colby Petelinkar to make a great catch. On the first pitch to the next batter the runner on second base would attempt to steal third, and advanced to score on a tough overthrow on the play. So, with now two outs and up 1 run the Minutemen got the ground ball out they needed to secure the win and a seed into the playoff round. 

In game three, the Minutemen played a team from Virginia, called the Knuckleheads. This game for the Minutemen was one where while not needing a win, they wanted to give up as few runs as possible to secure the #1 seed in their playoff bracket. The Knuckleheads did defeat the Minutemen, but the team obtained their goal of securing that seed, thanks to 4 2/3 of great relief pitching by Gavin Ferrandino. 

Now the Minutemen entered the playoff round with a game against the Octararo Young Braves. It was a great game, with the first three innings being scoreless, then finally in the bottom of the 4th the Minutemen opened up a 3 - 0 lead. However, that lead would quickly disappear as the Young Braves came back in the top of the 5th to score 4 and take a 1 run lead. The Minutemen managed to work the bases loaded in the bottom of that frame and tied the game with a key walk by Sean Doherty. Then, with one out and the bases loaded Eric Hoefer stepped to the plate. Hoefer hit a hard ground ball to 2B, which could have been turned into a double play if not for the great slide into second by Doherty; on that play the go ahead and eventual game winning run crossed the plate, and that’s all the team needed as Hoefer was able to shut the Braves down in the top of the 6th for the win. 

With that win the Minutemen were now in the championship game against a very tough SJ Young Guns team. This was the Young Guns third championship appearance this season at Ripken. They had averaged over 10 runs scored per game in this tournament and had just been beating up on their opponents. But, the Minutemen seemed loose and relaxed, being led in pre - game dancing by Mark Seibert. With the Minutemen being the visiting team it gave them the opportunity to try to open up a lead early, and they did, scoring a run on an RBI single by Hoefer. After that it was all defense! In the bottom of the first catcher Mark Seibert, who was a rock behind the plate for most of the tournament, threw a runner out at third base - killing what could have been the beginning of a rally. The bottom of the 4th brought on yet another great defensive play as Sichel made a catch on a fly ball to right and was able to double up a runner at first. Then, in the bottom of the 5th came some even greater plays. The Young Guns managed to get a runner to third with only 1 out, but the Minutemen bared down. A great diving catch in foul territory by third baseman Tyler Palkovics was not only a huge second out, but now also took away the threat of a squeeze bunt to try and score the tying run from third. Then, a hard hit ball up the middle, which off the bat looked like would be an easy run tying single, was gobbled up behind second base by SS Austin Hitchcock, he then gunned the runner out at first on a throw from behind the bag. Coach Pugh later said “that was a game changer and there was nothing routine about it”. As the team huddled on the bench before batting in the top of the 6th, coach Pugh told them, “I don’t need 10 runs, but 2 makes this a lot easier for us”. The inning started with Hitchcock lining out hard to the SJ third baseman, then stepped in DJ Mischak, who while to look at him isn’t big in stature, he certainly is big in heart, and “absolutely one of the best team mates a coach could ask for to have on his team”. DJ has always been a kid that battles at the plate, giving a pitcher a tough at bat every time he is up there. Well, tough at bat is what he gave this time, as he worked an 11 pitch at bat into a HBP; that’s what got the rally started. A walk by Ferrandino and a single by Massielo got the bases loaded for Doherty, who came through big, driving in 2 with an RBI double down the RF line; which almost plated a third run, but Massielo was cut down at the plate on a very close play.

So here they were, up 3 runs, the bottom off the 6th. Massielo stepped on the mound needing just three outs to secure the win. The first batter popped out to second, the next batter flew out to RF, and the last out, well that was recorded in the best way to celebrate a championship win, by virtue of a strikeout. 

The combined pitching efforts of Hoefer and Massielo held the hot hitting Young Guns to only 1 hit, making that two 1 hitters the team would post in the tournament. Eric Hoefer was awarded the Championship game MVP for his RBI in the first inning and his winning effort on the mound. 

The win was a total team effort, and while there were so many great individual moments everything they accomplished this weekend was because they played hard as a team, practiced hard as a team, and never gave up as a team. The team also attributes a lot of their success to the ability practice both indoors and out, as when it is rainy or cold, they call their home Big Leagues Academy in Newtown, Pa. “It’s a great resource to have in our area and gives a lot of advantages” coach Pugh said. 

For more information on the Minutemen program please check out our website, www.minutemenbaseball.org. 

The players of the team are: Justin Massielo, Sean Doherty, Eric Hoefer, Mark Seibert, Colby Petelinkar, Tyler Palkovics, Danny Martinez, Richie Sichel, Austin Hitchcock, DJ Mischak, Gavin Ferrandino, Harrison Treiman, Matt Nenner, Luke Sobolevitch, and Drew Smiley. 

Manager & Coach: Shaun Pugh and Mike Kutys.