Rochester NH U8 Baseball Advances Yet Again At New England Regionals

As opening pool play ended last night with a convincing 17-2 rout over Andy Valley, Maine, Roger Allen U8 Baseball clinched the 2nd seed at the New England Regionals in Freetown, MA. And what a weekend it was!

And what a facility!

You're looking at 'Little Fenway', one of the four fields at the Freetown Athletic Complex.

This tournament began in grand style on Friday evening with opening ceremonies that included a parade and a spaghetti dinner for all the team members.

The 'skills competition' was held shortly thereafter and it featured a 'Home Run Derby' that my nephew Colin participated in. For kids in that age group, they used second base as home plate and were thrown batting practice from shallow center.

Colin crushed an opposite field homerun (he's a lefty) over the Green Monster which he is posing in front of in the above photo. This photo was taken BEFORE the derby, so perhaps there was a bit of psychic phenomena or visualization involved here.

A kid from the Arlington Mass team hit THREE homers in the derby and, wouldn't you know it, Rochester had to face off against him and his club in the second game.

Would you believe that Rochester was trailing in that game 13-5 and rallied all the way back to force extra innings? They ultimately lost 14-13, but it was one for the ages for sure.

Since they beat both Connecticut and Maine, Rochester has advanced to the 'bracket stage'. I have a feeling that they'll have to beat Arlington if they hope to advance again.

But what a wonderful weekend of competitive baseball!

Everyone involved should be proud of what they've accomplished.