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2 Little b teams are off to compete in Tennessee
By BRIAN DZENIS
Creekside Fitness and Baird Brothers will represent the Youngstown area in the NABF 16-U World Series in Knoxville, Tenn., beginning today. Both teams were in the tournament last year.
Creekside, the reigning 16-U champs, are hoping for the same result despite only having one returning player from last year’s team. Baird Brothers wants to advance past the quarterfinals.
“It takes a lot to get there,” Baird Brothers catcher Coleman Stauffer said. “Once you get there, it’s a lot of fun, but you want to win.”
This season, Baird Brothers had the best regular season record (24-5), scored the most runs (277) and gave up the least runs (102) of any Class Little b team.
Still, making the World Series was a tricky task. All that regular season success did not translate to the Little b title.
Creekside earned the automatic bid into the World Series and Baird Brothers found themselves in a NABF regional tournament. They had to play five games in four days to win the Cene Park regional to return to Knoxville.
“It was really nerve wracking. If we lose two, we’re done,” Stauffer said. “We lost the first game and played pretty bad.
“Things got scary and we just turned it around in one game and never looked back.”
Playing that many games in a short amount of time proved not to be an issue for Baird Brothers, which has a deep arsenal of arms. Ten pitchers have recorded a win for Baird Brothers this season.
“We’ve got nine or ten guys that pitch,” Baird Brothers coach Angelo Bianco said. “Our top guys are good, but you need a bullpen. You need relievers. Everybody kind of knows their role.
“We had more pitchers that we didn’t use and the teams we were playing had to recycle guys that had pitched before. We still had fresh arms and that helps us out quite a bit.”
Top among Baird Brothers throwers is Brandon Fleeger. The Butler, Pa., pitcher has a 1.29 ERA and four wins. He struck out 56 batters in 38 innings.
Fleeger also leads the team in hits and RBIs, batting .429 on the season. Stauffer, who’s from Boardman, bats a team-high .443 and led his team in doubles with eight.
The reigning World Series champs differ from Baird Brothers in that Creekside took its lumps up front. Creekside started the season 7-2, then suffered injuries ranging from a broken thumb to a torn meniscus. Creekside then went 8-10 before bouncing back to finish at 22-15.
“We never got down on ourselves and thought anything was too out of reach, and we just kept pushing through the hardships no matter what anybody said about us,” Creekside outfielder Alex Altmire said. “We knew deep down inside that we could do it and that’s the most important part of our season this year.”
Given the team’s injury issues, that automatic bid to the World Series is huge. Altmire, who plays for Knoch High School, said the team has had only a couple practices in favor of resting.
Creekside’s hitting has been the constant throughout the season. Jackson Deemer (.450), Brennan Olesh (.419), Jamie Thomson (.395), Anthony Laird (.363) and Altmire (.333) form a potent lineup.
“That’s been the one thing that we can hang our hats on all season,” Creekside coach Lonnie Laird said. “We usually bat one through 10, it didn’t matter who it was, we seemed to put the bat on the ball.”
Olesh is also the top arm with a 3.97 ERA with three wins through a team-high 37 innings.
Both teams start pool play today.
“It’s great to be back after completely rebuilding a team,” Laird said. “We have a bunch of good kids. They’re highly optimistic and they have good heads on their shoulders.
“The biggest thing I can see is the attitudes of the kids. All year our kids have matured to the point where they know what to expect.”