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Struthers’ Cene Park hosts two tournaments
By Greg Gulas
STRUTHERS
The PONY Palomino baseball tournament begins today at 5:30 p.m. with six regional champions and runners-up set to battle for the right to represent the East Zone at next week’s World Series in Santa Clara, Calif.
The COLT 15 East Zone tourney, which has attracted eight entries, begins Friday at 12:30 p.m. with the championship game slated for Sunday afternoon.
All action will take place at Bob Cene Park in Struthers.
“Last year’s local all-star team was managed by Andy Timko, who led Astro Falcons to this year’s NABF 18-U World Series title,” said Bob Richards, who is in his 16th year as West Region director. “They won the East Zone title and then two games in the World Series, which was held in Compton, Calif. It was a very competitive field a year ago and all indications are that this year’s field is just as challenging.”
The East Zone includes two local teams, Youngstown All-Stars, managed by Don Pletcher and West Region runners-up Knightline Embroidery, led by Tom Otto.
Three players from last year’s championship team — Mike Boswell, Jared Kapturasky and Vinny Lucente — return to this year’s all-star squad and Pletcher is counting on their experience to help lead them to what he hopes will be a second consecutive crown.
“We have an 18-man roster with players from Astro Falcons, Baird Brothers, Creekside Fitness, Dura-Edge and Knightline Embroidery comprising our squad,” said Pletcher, who led Baird Brothers to the Class B 18-U league crown. “All players come from quality teams and managers, but our challenge will be to get them to jell in a short amount of time in order to make a championship run. We have Youngstown across our chests so we want to do a great job in representing our league. Looking at the big picture, a trip to California and a spot in the World Series is the ultimate goal.”
Other teams include Ohio Longhorns, the Cleveland Diamond League automatic qualifier; North Region qualifier Bonnie Jays of the New York City Federation League; Worthington/Kittanning of Pittsburgh, Quad County Palomino champs; and West Region champion Pittsburgh North Hills.
An Otto-coached team, perennial regional qualifiers, is making a second ever Zone appearance.
“We had 25 players on our roster during the regular season and many of those players were young, so we created an all-star team that we feel can make a deep tournament run,” Otto said. “What I like about our league is that we had to qualify during several phases over the course of the season in order to get to this point. The goal for every team is California and the World Series and ours is no different. We’re excited to get under way.”
Bob Burke, a 30-year veteran on the local amateur baseball front is director of the East Zone Tournament with Jim Keenan, currently in his seventh year as director, overseeing the COLT 15 group.
Eight squads comprise the COLT 15 field with Mike Turvey of Columbiana, who served as general manager of the Class B 16-U Land Sharks, set to serve as Youngstown All-Stars manager.
“We had the second best overall record this year in the 16-U division, but our team was comprised of all players 15 and under so we’re ready to go. We had a lot of talent that we were able to pull from so we feel like we can compete,” Turvey said. “It’s an exciting time for everyone that is associated with our team.”
The remainder of the field includes North Region runner-up McCandless, Mars runner-up Butler and Mars winner, Mars, all of which are representatives of the Quad County PONY/COLT League, Boardman winner Lightning, Boardman runner-up Premier and the Red Devils, all hailing from the Cleveland Premier League and North Region champion Blue Devils of the New York Federal League.