West Windsor Little League

WWLL 9-Year Old All-Stars Game Results

8/6: WWLL 9s WIN LAWRENCE TOURNEY CHAMPIONSHIP!!

8/6/09: West Windsor 9, Robbinsville 0

It was Championship Thursday for the West Windsor Little League. A few hours after the 11-year olds took home the West End Tournament title, the West Windsor 9-year old All Stars had its total game going in beating Robbinsville, 9-0, and won the Lawrence Tournament Championship.

West Windsor combined the ingredients of one-hit shutout pitching by Cole Millinger and David Philbin, added in a delayed steal of home by Blake Brown while Robbinsville was intentionally walking Philbin for the second time in the game, and then, for the icing on the cake, Ryan Strype, the batter following Philbin, crushed a three-run home run over the left-centerfield wall.

Millinger was impressive in gutting out four innings to earn the win, striking out eight batters, including the last batter he faced with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.

Meanwhile, West Windsor grabbed the lead for good with a four-run third inning, thanks to consecutive two-run singles by Strype and Erik Howard. West Windsor scratched out a run in the fourth inning when Brown singled home Brennan Froio for a 5-0 lead.

But it was the top of the sixth inning that had the crowd buzzing after the game. After Brown legged out his third hit of the game and advanced to third on wild pitches, Welch walked and stole second base. That brought up Philbin, who had tripled and singled hard in his first two at-bats. Robbinsville had intentionally walked Philbin with first base open in the fourth and escaped unscathed, so Robbinsville set up its catcher to do it again. After the second pitch, Brown took off on the return throw from the catcher and beat the attempt at home to put West Windsor ahead, 6-0.

Philbin then took the next two intentional balls to bring up Strype. With a two-and-one count, Strype drove a belt-high fastball deep into the night--the only ball hit out of the yard in the Tournament.

Philbin allowed two walks in the bottom of the sixth, but maintained the shutout by inducing the final batter to bounce back to him and ignite the celebration.

Congratulations to all the players--Blake Brown, Dylan Welch, David Philbin, Ryan Strype, Erik Howard, Brian Murphy, Jack Lichtenstein, Brennan Froio, Ben Goldstein, Cole Millinger, Matthew Michibata, Jack McNeilly, and Sahil Thube--and to coaches Jason Welch and Mike Strype, as well as to all the parents who helped out with the team through the postseason and never wavered in their support of this championship team.

Thanks for a terrific summer season.

8/5/09: Semifinals - WW 9, HTRBA

To further prove the phenomenal depth of the West Windsor 9-year old All Stars, Dylan Welch came to the mound from third base and got the final two outs in West Windsor’s 9-7 victory over HTRBA in the semifinals of the Lawrence Tournament. The boys will go for the championship on Thursday at 8:00 pm against Robbinsville.

West Windsor entered the sixth inning ahead, 9-2, but five walks in the inning allowed HTRBA to sneak back into the game before Welch struck out two batters to save the day. Brian Murphy was the winning pitcher, battling through four innings to yield only two runs against a team that defeated West Windsor, 11-2, in the opening game of the tournament pool play.

But West Windsor had a different approach at the plate this time and, despite HTRBA’s deep outfield positioning, David Philbin launched a shot over the right fielder’s head for a triple that scored Welch to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first inning. Philbin then scored on Ryan Strype’s groundout.

After HTRBA tied the game in the top of the second inning, Blake Brown drove home Brennan Froio with a base hit to center field for the go-ahead run. West Windsor poured it on in the third inning, thanks to consecutive RBI singles by Erik Howard, who went three-for-three on the night, and Murphy. Jack Lichtenstein and Ben Goldstein brought home Howard and Murphy with ground outs to put West Windsor ahead, 7-2.

West Windsor added two insurance runs in the fifth on another RBI groundout by Lichtenstein and a clutch RBI single by Froio. No one realized how big those runs were at the time, but they put West Windsor in the Finals.

8/4/09: West Windsor 8, Millstone 2

The boys on the West Windsor 9-year old All Stars left some craters along the left field line during Tuesday’s 8-2 win over Millstone in the quarterfinals of the Lawrence Tournament, which was rescheduled from Sunday due to rain. WW faces the winner of the HTRBA/Allentown game in the semifinals on Wednesday night, August 5th at 8pm. WW hit 4 doubles, two by Erik Howard, that left a trail of rocket fuel as they were launched deep into left field.

Brian Murphy hit the first one, driving in Ryan Strype to tie the game, 1-1 in the second inning. In the top of the third inning, Millstone threatened to take the lead after a two-out walk and a hit toward the left field line, but Jack Lichtenstein’s throw to Dylan Welch at third base nailed the advancing Millstone runner for the third out.

West Windsor then exploded for six runs in the fourth to put Millstone away. Howard’s first bomb drove home Strype and then Sahil Thube followed with another blast to give West Windsor a 3-1 lead. Lichtenstein’s single past shortstop plated Thube and, after two outs and an error, Welch delivered a clutch two-run single that scored Brennan Froio and Blake Brown. West Windsor’s final run was created by Howard, who hit another long double and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Ben Goldstein won his fourth game of the postseason, allowing one run on three hits while striking out five in his four innings. David Philbin pitched a scoreless fifth inning and Lichtenstein and Thube closed out Millstone in the sixth.

8/1/09: West Windsor 11, Allentown 0

Brian Murphy threw a complete-game, one-hit shutout to lead the West Windsor 9-Year-Old All Stars to an 11-0, 4-inning win over Allentown on Saturday in the final pool play game of the Lawrence Tournament. West Windsor will face Millstone in the quarterfinals on Sunday at 3:00 pm.

Murphy also contributed to the 8-hit attack with a second inning double in the left-centerfield gap and scored on Jack Lichtenstein’s RBI single through the shortstop hole. Blake Brown, who engineered a run in the first with a leadoff single and two steals before scoring on Erik Howard’s sacrifice fly to left, doubled in Brennan Froio and Ben Goldstein and then stole home to put West Windsor ahead, 7-0.

Ryan Strype had the key hit in the three-run third inning, plating Howard with another long double and then scoring on Jack McNeilly’s sacrifice fly to right field. Dylan Welch’s base-loaded walk closed out the scoring, as Murphy kept Allentown off balance all game, striking out five while walking two in 65 pitches.

West Windsor finished 3-1 in the Lawrence pool play and has a 7-2 record this postseason.

7/28/09: West Windsor LL 13, Lawrence 5

There aren’t any switches in the West Windsor 9-year old All Star dugout, but after the boys stumbled to a 5-0 deficit in the bottom of the third inning against Lawrence, the power was turned on. Backed by David Philbin’s 3-for-3, 5 RBI night, West Windsor stormed back for a 13-5 victory to improve its record to 2-1 in the Lawrence Tournament.

Jack McNeilly started the third inning rally with a line drive single and, after a single by Brennan Froio, scored on Ben Goldstein’s hit. Froio scored on Cole Millinger’s fielder’s choice and, after Blake Brown and Dylan Welch drove in runs to make the score, 5-4, Philbin launched a shot to deep centerfield for a three-run inside-the-park home run.

Jack Lichtenstein held the lead with two scoreless innings on the mound. In the fifth inning, Philbin, who was a double shy of hitting for the cycle, drove home Brown and Welch with a triple into right field. Later in the inning, Ryan Strype hit another bomb to deep centerfield for a two-run triple and then scored on a wild pitch to make the final score, 13-5, as Philbin shut down Lawrence in the sixth, striking out two batters.

West Windsor next faces Allentown in its final pool play game on Friday, July 30 at 6pm.

7/24/09: West Windsor 2, HTRBA 11

7/25/09: West Windsor 13, Allentown 3

The West Windsor 9-year All Stars woke up their bats on Saturday in time to salvage a split in the opening weekend of the Lawrence Tournament, defeating Allentown, 13-3, in five innings. West Windsor was held to a combined five hits in consecutive losses to Nottingham (last weekend in the quarterfinals of the Cranbury/Plainsboro Tournament) and HTRBA (11-2 on Friday).

Blake Brown, West Windsor’s catalyst, let Allentown know right away that Saturday was going to be different, ripping a double over the centerfielder’s head on the game’s fourth pitch. Two batters later, Brown scored on David Philbin’s line drive single up the middle. West Windsor scratched out another run in the second inning on consecutive singles by Jack Lichtenstein, Jack McNeilly and Brennan Froio and added three more in the third, highlighted by Philbin’s two-run single.

Ben Goldstein, who had a clutch two-out RBI single in the fourth inning, was perfect on the mound through three innings before tiring in the fourth. But Goldstein finished the inning ahead 6-3 with a huge strikeout to strand Allentown runners on second and third.

In the fifth inning, West Windsor broke the game open against Allentown’s closer, scoring seven runs. Five walks set the table for Dylan Welch and Lichtenstein to deliver run-scoring hits. When Brian Murphy shut down Allentown in the bottom of the fifth, the game ended due to the ten-run rule.

West Windsor takes on host Lawrence on Tuesday, July 28 at 8pm and Allentown on Friday, July 30 at 6pm to close out pool play.

7/15/09: West Windsor 15, Lawrence 5

In their 4th game in 5 days, the West Windsor 9-year old All Stars showed no signs of a letdown in defeating Lawrence, 15-5, in four innings, to complete pool play at the Cranbury/Plainsboro Tournament with a 4-0 record. Four pitchers threw one inning apiece, highlighted by David Philbin’s perfect 8-pitch third inning that included two strikeouts.

At the plate, West Windsor’s first four batters—Blake Brown, Philbin, Dylan Welch and Sahil Thube—combined to go 8-for-8 with 4 walks, 8 runs scored, and 6 RBIs. Thube’s second inning blast into the left-center field gap was the longest hit of the day and helped give West Windsor an 11-1 lead after two innings. Welch had a clutch two-out hit to drive home two more runs in the third inning and, after Lawrence cut the lead to 13-5 in the top of the fourth, West Windsor scored two runs in the home half on a Brian Murphy steal of home and Jack Lichtenstein’s RBI single into left field to end the game.

West Windsor will be either the first or second seed in Saturday’s quarterfinal round with the opponent and time to be determined.

7/14/09: WWLL Wins Twice To Open Post-Season

The West Windsor 9-year old All Stars continued its impressive play at the Cranbury/Plainsboro Tournament last night, cruising to a 16-0 victory in four innings over previously unbeaten Ewing. Ben Goldstein threw a complete-game no-hitter, striking out seven while walking only three in an efficient 68 pitches. On offense, West Windsor pounded out 14 hits in its three innings. Ryan Strype led the way with three hits, including a third inning bomb that went for a double, and three RBIs. Sahil Thube also had three RBIs while David Philbin scored three runs on two hits and a walk. West Windsor, 3-0 in Pool C, concludes pool play on Wednesday night, July 15 at 8pm versus Lawrence. The boys have clinched a spot in Saturday’s quarterfinals with the opponent and time to be determined.

7/12/09: WWLL Wins Twice To Open Post-Season

The West Windsor 9-year old All Stars made a strong statement to the rest of the Tournament field in Plainsboro over the weekend with mercy-rule wins over Six-Eleven and Lawrence. West Windsor’s bats wasted no time in either game, scoring 15 and 10 runs, respectively, in the top of the opening frame. Every player on the roster had an RBI and scored at least three runs over the weekend, with leadoff hitter Blake Brown leading the way with seven runs scored on six hits in seven at bats. Brown also set the tone from the catcher’s position by nailing runners attempting to steal second in the bottom of the first of both games. David Philbin went 3-for-4 with 4 RBIs against Six-Eleven while Jack McNeilly capped the 10-run first versus Lawrence with a bases-clearing triple down the right field line.

On the mound, Ben Goldstein, Cole Millinger and McNeilly limited Six-Eleven to one run on three hits in the four innings of play while striking out eight hitters against only two walks. Brian Murphy was the winning pitcher versus Lawrence, striking out four batters in his two innings of work. The other two outs in the first inning were recorded by Brown’s throw-out and a laser-like relay from Matthew Michibata in deep right field to Philbin at shortstop and then finally to Brown at home, who tagged out a runner attempting to score from first on a double. Michibata, Philbin and Sahil Thube helped finish the contest after four innings.

West Windsor finishes up pool play with games on Tuesday, July 14 at 6 pm versus Ewing (the winner of this game will clinch first place in Pool C) and Wednesday, July 15 at 8 pm in a rematch with Lawrence.