New York State Tournament Preview 2014

The New York State Tournament begins on Monday with a 6-team double elimination bracket. Whitestown opens up with Throgs Neck. The winner takes on Grand Island. Colonie opens up with Wappinger. The winner will face East Meadow.

With the way 6-team tournaments are set up, if you play in the first round, you can't blow any of your pitching. It's not worth it. Winning a first round game, and then losing to the bye team sets you back at the beginning of the losers bracket. You have to win the first TWO games if you don't have the bye. The way to do that? Save your pitching for game two. Obviously, if you have the bye, you play to win every game. That's your Little League Insider strategy of the day.




Section 1: Grand Island (District 1)
2000-2014 History: 2 district titles, 0 section titles

Grand Island won its district title as 11-year olds, but like every other team in this tournament, did not win a section title as 10s or 11s. This is the first appearance for every single one of these specific teams. Grand Island won a tough district and then rolled through its two games in Section 1 tournament including a 14-4 victory in the final over Wellsville. Austin Weber had 6 RBI in the game including a grand slam and PJ Munoz struck out 7 batters in four innings to get the victory.

Section 2: Whitestown (District 10)
2000-2014 History: 8 district titles, 1 section title

Whitestown is 9-0 during the tournament so far and navigated a tough sectional tournament with wins over traditional power, Maine-Endwell, and Syracuse-area team, Baldwinsville. Whitestown has shown solid pitching through with Bryce Gnatek, Collin McAndrew, and Tommy Morreale performing well. Gnatek and Morreale have home run pop along with Collin McAndrew.

Section 3: Colonie (District 13)
2000-2013 History: 9 district titles, 3 section titles, 1 state titles

Colonie is the most storied program left in the state tournament. They've even won a state title back in 2004. They won the initial Section 3 Tournament this year that included every single team in every district in Section 3. There were no district tournaments. Colonie had to weather pool play which included the defending 11-year old state champ, as well as a single elimination sub-divisional title game and the best 2-out-of-3 championship. Colonie passed with flying colors and an unbeaten record. Jakob Lemperle is the team ace and big bopper. Jimmy Davis and Colin McDonough both have big sticks as well.

Section 4: Town of Wappinger (District 17)
2000-2013 History: 4 district titles, 0 section titles

Wappinger won its first section title in decades, but they did it in dominant fashion. Wappinger relied on its powerful top of the order and bashed more than a 15 home runs in four games. Kyle Caccamise, Jarred DiNardo, Ryan Kirby, Matt Rzeznik, and Quentin Bowman are all scary hitters. Kirby, Q. Bowman, and Phoenix Bowman are all solid on the mound.

Section 5: Throgs Neck (District 22)
2000-2013 History: 6 district titles, 0 section titles

Throgs Neck relied on its powerful pitching depth led by Alex Santos and Aiden Daley. The offense has enough power that Joe O'Keefe can come off the bench and club a pair of home runs in the Section 5 championship victory. Almost everyone has home run ability including Will Tracy, Chris Soto, and Chris Polgano. Evan Stein and Marc Stockhausen add pitching depth.

Section 6: East Meadow (District 32)
2000-2013 History: 6 district titles, 0 section titles

East Meadow fought and clawed its way to the first section title in league history with a 3-1 victory over Port Washington, a team that beat them in pool play 10-0. Charlie Cucchiara picked up the victory with a dominant performance on the mound. He also beat Babylon 9-0 on the opening night of the section tournament.

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