Coby Brickner:

My first meeting with Coby came at the draft. We had first pick and Coby was the best player on the field (says me). He was very respectful. He came up to me and said “Hi Coach I am Coby Brickner, please please don’t draft me I don’t want to be on your team.” With lots of mixed feelings I drafted him anyways.

The next time Coby popped up was 3 weeks before the season when I got a call that said “Coby broke his arm.” I had this feeling like God was punishing me for not being more thoughtful of Coby’s wishes.

I was so wrong…

Coby showed the coaches his character by coming to practice every day with a cast on. He couldn’t do most things but he would do everything he could. Coby would take at bats with one hand on the bat and was a good leader to the younger players. You could tell this kid brought heart to the team. Coby had his cast off and batted to start the season with this really lame arm, and just never stopped

I asked Coby to do some hard thing on this team. He had to share short stopping duties as a 12 year old with our up and coming 10 year old star. Some games we needed Coby to catch, or play second base. We rarely gave Coby starts on the mound because we needed his defense.

All of these tough breaks for a kid in his last year of little league have made it crystal clear that Coby will man up and do whatever the team needs. In the beginning of the year we were concerned that Coby would blow off a sign, or get really mad after making out. We talked to him and told him that as a 12 year old leader it was time to “Man Up”

Since the first month of the season Coby has done precisely that. With his Mom sick, Coby has walked to and from practice some times. Coby has been on the field for his team mates when his Mom was in the hospital or home in bed. No matter what, we have never seen Coby slip backwards. When the slide sign goes up Coby goes down. When the pitchers won’t throw strikes to him, Coby takes the walk, and steals his way to the triple he would have hit. When I once asked Coby to go to the outfield he trotted out there like he was glad for the chance.

Now the end of the season is here, and Coby has had his time to shine. In my opinion he is the best defensive shortstop in the league. Coby is one of the slightest players on out team, and he has 50% of our home runs. I love giving the ball to Coby on the mound. He is going to throw strikes, and give his team the best chance. As our only 12 year old all-star, Coby is naturally going to be a role model for the other players whether he wants to be or not. This has been a year of dramatic maturity for Coby. He handles adversity, pressure, and constructive criticism as well as any player on our team.

The game on Monday Night was a once in a career night for a kid. I hope that 20 or 30 years from now Coby will remember how special it was to hit those 2 home runs off an all-star pitcher. On the mound Coby threw 88 pitches, and 55 of them were strikes. Coby threw 7 strikeouts in 5 innings. Coby was a great addition to Vellano! I am so glad that I didn’t listen to him that day at try-outs!

We have a pattern of jumping out to a lead and then losing it… This game was the opposite. We were the team that kept bringing it.
It was a tough one for several reasons.

We had used up our pitching over the weekend.
Nathan Toms was on vacation.
AJ Mazzone was pitching for JT Garry.
JT Garry needed this game to stay locked in to the playoffs.
We were coming off a heartbreaking loss to JMS

Our secret weapon was Coby Brickner plays crazy baseball when he is facing his near step brothers Tim and Sean Cramer. Coby always puts on a show, but these games are the ones where the fans don’t sit down.

In the first inning JTG jumped out to a lead. We had an error, followed by a Mazzone triple to right field, and a Cramer double to right field. The inning ended on a spectacular play when our stud catcher Nate McCarroll made a play at the plate on a JT Garry player stealing home on a passed ball…. Score 2-0 JT Garry

We answered back when Coy led off with a walk, Followed by a Hutton walk. Coby scored on a passed ball and Duncan Satterllee drove Hutton in to make it 2-2.

In the second JTG got us back. We led off with 2 walks. Derusso hit an RBI and Lawyer scored on a passed ball… now it is 4-2 JTG…

In the third, JTG got us for another run on a Cramer double, and Warner single. Coby shut it down himself with 2 key strike outs.

In the bottom of the third we came to bat down 5-2. Coby Brickner stepped up and hit a solo “No Doubter” home run right over the Vellano Sign in center field. It was enough to fire up the boys for a big rally. Three straight singles by Hutton, Hoffman, and Satterlee led to 2 more runs scored. Chris Adikes got an BRI on a ground out, and it was 5-5.. we were tied with playoff bound JT Garry.

It stayed that way until the top of the 5th when Cramer and Neet led off for JTG with 2 singles. Both batters eventually scored on passed balls so it was 7-5 JT Garry.

Vellano’s most admirable feature is their refusal to quit. In the bottom of the 5th, Jonathan Hoffman singled to left field, Ducan Satterlee pounded a double to center field to drive him in. Dylan Jones hit a ground ball out that scored Duncan and we were right back there at 7-7 going into the 6th and final inning.

Warner walked to start of their inning, Tenney tripled, then Cramer and Neet both walked before Mike Poole hit a triple to center field. Poole eventually scored himself on a passed ball. It was 12-7…. We had that one ugly blow up inning.

Our kids knew the odds were against them in the bottom of the 6th. They were down 12-7. Every player put a batting helmet on and grabbed a bat. We were going to bat around the order and pull this out. Mke Kane started us off with a single.. then Coby hit is SECOND HOME RUN of the night making the score 12-9. Then James Hutton was hit hard with a pitch, Duncan singled and Adikes walked.. The bases are loaded and we are down by 3.. the winning run is at the plate..

Unfortunately that is how it ended. We hit a very hard ground ball to 3rd base, and it was over… another heartbreaker with lots of high points

In a season of heartbreak, this game will stand out as one of the toughest to lose. Our kids played solid baseball for 6 strong innings. We were the home team, so we get first ups.

Nathan Toms had his best pitching performance of the year. In the first inning our defense clearly had his back. The top 3 hit 2 ground balls to Coby and 1 to Chris, and just like that we had a goose egg.

The top of the 2nd, Chris leads off with a single. He then goes on to score when the throw to second base rolled into the outfield. Chris has had a great year of heads up base running where his lack of speed is offset by good baseball IQ.

Dylan Jones gets on with a single

Mike Kane gets up and spanks the ball to center field for a stand up double, and scores Dylan.

Nathan Toms answers on the mound with 2 strike outs and another ground ball and it is 2-0 VB after 2.

In the 3rd we go right back to work. BrickHouse leads off with a single and advances to 3rd on a James Hutton ground ball. Nathan Toms blasts a single scoring Coby. Duncan walked and was moved along to score by a Dylan Jones single (his second of the game) and a passed ball.

The bottom of the 3rd looked great. Nathan Toms climbed the hill and got 2 fly balls and a strike out. It was VB 4 and JMS 0.

Zack Terry from JMS was not going to ease up with the pressure. He came out and recorded a 3 strike out inning on us.

In the bottom of the 4th, Schwarz started out with a triple by JJ Papielon.. I thought it was going out of the park. Next they got a single from Brennan scoring JJ. The score was 4-1. Nathan cranked up the 4 seam fastball and struck out 3 consecutive batters to keep the game 4-1.

In the top of the 5th we answered the run by JMS with 2 of our own. James Hutton led off with a single. Nathan Toms took a nasty fastball to the leg to get on and move Hutton over. Then Duncan hit a sacrafice that scored James. Nathan Toms stole home on a passed ball, and it was 6-1 Vellano in the middle of the 5th.

If you want a happy story stop reading here…

The 5th inning started out well. Nathan gets a strike out and a ground ball to 3rd.. two outs and nobody on. Then we gave up 2 walks and JJ Paeielon hit a single. Now the bases are loaded…. (Play creepy organ music here). The outfield was playing in, and Brennan got his second big hit of the day. He hit it right past the outfielders and it rolled to the wall giving him a triple and he scored on a throwing error. Just like that it was 6-5.

I am so proud of our kids. Many kids would get their heads down and be ready to cash it in. Not our band of tenacious warriors. They kept their chins up and were on the fence for what we knew would be a great final inning of baseball.

Mike Dunn took the ball with not a drip of sweat. He truely has a relief pitchers mindset.

Mike went out and struck out the first batter. We told Mike to “pitch to contact.” He is 10 years old facing 12 year old all-stars. He is not there to strike them out, only to allow them to put the ball in play and let oru defense decide if we would win this game.

Mike struck the first batter out, then walked one. Ty Greminger hit a big double to center field and it was 6-5. Ortel hit a sacrifice and it was 6-6 (play more creepy organ music.) Zack Terry stepped into the batters box.. The crowd was silent… 2 outs tie score..

I yelled “Come On Mike Just Throw a Strike” Mike heated one up, and sent it flying across the plate. Like Slow Motion… Terry hit a rocket over the left field wall for a walk off victory for JMS.

Many thoughts:

Tip of the hat to JMS for never quitting
I am so sorry proud for Nathan… he had 5 great inning
Mike Dunn showed everyone he had the courage of a gladiator
Our hitters hit throughout the line up against great pitching
we played solid defense.

There is so much to be proud of, I just hope our kids don’t let the loss drown out the good things they did

Scoreboard operators were busy on Friday as Vellano Brothers and VFW combined for 18 runs. Vellano Brothers eventually won the offensive battle 10-8 in six innings.

The two teams combined for 25 hits, including five extra base hits. James Hutton racked up four RBIs on three hits for Vellano Brothers. Hutton singled in the second inning and doubled in the first and third innings.
Greg Mazzie had a strong game at the plate for VFW. Mazzie went 3-4 and scored three runs. Mazzie tripled in the second inning and singled in the first and fourth innings. Nathan Toms went 3 for 3. C Dog went 2 for 2.

Coby Brickner rose to the ocassion out of the bullpen, hurling two innings of shutout ball while racking up two strikeouts and giving up one hit and no walks. Duncan Satteerlee had great control, as he threw strikes on 61 of his 81 pitches. Satteerlee collected five strike outs and walked none for Vellano Brothers

“Where the heck did you find Mike Dunn!” that was the question that an old timer asked me on Monday as Mike pitched Vellano to a lead over first place Elks in his 3 innings on the mound. The kid is baseball 10, a rookie in the majors and can flat out throw the baseball. There is nothing but upside to Mikes game over his next 2 years in Majors.

In addition to Mikes performance on the mound, we had some great defense played behind him. Ben Keller is showing the coaches “Ben 2.0″ as he hit a huge double last week and made a wonderful catch in left field yesterday. I think Ben was a little gun shy when he made the transition to majors pitching. All of those Rookie Jitters are behind Ben as he is filling out the majors uniform and looking like a great prospect for Vellano.

The fan favorite of the day was surely Nate McCarroll. Nate has been a real leader this year through some hard times at the plate. It started with an injury to Nates Achilles tendon, then a thumb injury sustained while being our ace catcher. Throughout all of the struggles, Nate has exemplified the best in a 12 year old baseball player. Nate came to all of our practices even when he was on the disabled list. Nate cheered on his team mates, and never let his frustration seep out into the dugout. Everyone is a nice guy when things are good. You find out alot more about a person when they are in adversity. Nate showed everyone on the team how to “man up” this year.

When Nate got his first hit of the day the fans were loud. When Nate got up and hit his second hit of the day, the fans where on their feet. When Nate came in to pitch in relief, after having been the starting catcher and getting 2 big hits we all knew it was showtime. Nate ended up gutting it out on the mound and having the best game of his year.

The defensive highlight reel is full of James Hutton. It seemed like everything was hit to the right side of the infield. This year has been brutal on infielders with inconsistent hops. James made it look as easy as falling off a log. Every shot that came his way was fielded. James also did a great job catching a steal. James has also been a leader in the dugout.

Having a season like this has been painful for all of the kids. They all start in April with hopes of a championship, or playing in the playoffs. To come to the park each day and put it all out there and so rarely win really tries a young mans heart. This is not something that I would wish on anyones son.

I think that our game against Elks was our best performance of the year. We batted around the batting order, we fielded and we got great pitching from 4 different pitchers. We used 3 different catchers. It was a day that all of the kids should be proud of.

This was a battle between the #7 and #8 team in Colonie Little League tonight. If you think this would mean a showcase for kids who can’t play baseball….. You are so wrong.

Daily Gazette and Vellano both bring young teams to the park. This means lots of “small ball”, and a couple of errors a game.

Tonight was not that kind of night. Tonight saw Chris Flood and Duncan Satterlee take the mound and pitch out of their minds. Batters on both teams got a steady diet of fast balls. It was also a game where there were virtually no defensive errors. Both teams played it very tight. For the first 5 innings there were only 2 runs scored by both teams combined.

Duncan pitched his second consecutive complete game.

Inning by Inning Recap:

Satch started us off with a strike out, followed by a ground ball single, then and a dramatic catch against the fence for James Hutton. Satch closed out the inning with his second K of the night.

Our first 3 batters learned for themselves that tonight the strike zone was going to be very wide. 1-2-3 go down on strikes… Are we down? No Way! We came to play 6, and we have the best “bottom of the order” in Colonie.

The Second is more of “The Duncan Show” Duncan gets 2 strike outs and handles a “come backer” himself.

We threatened in the second. Jonathan Hoffman gets on first, then Duncan helps himself and hits a single, then Dylan Jones moves them over. It just wasn’t enough though.. Chris Flood was able to get 2 strike outs and a ground ball, to leave the runner stranded.

The 3rd inning was a 4 pitch inning. a fly ball to C-Dog, and grounders to Satch and James Hutton got us back in the dug out in a hurry.

The bottom of the 3rd was no picnic for us either. We sent 3 batters up, and Chris Flood struck 3 batters out.

Onto the 4th inning. By now Satch had a pitch count advantage of about 15 pitches.

Satch demonstrated the advantage of emotional maturity. He gives up 2 singles.. They have runners on first and second with no outs. It was Mike Dunn and Ben Keller that took those shots to the outfield and made sure they were only singles. Duncan and Nate go to work and strike out the next 3 batters. The game is still knotted at zero, and the fans are seeing playoff caliber baseball from 2 teams that are only playing for heart.

Our end of the 4th was poetic justice for the kids that have struggled all year and kept taking extra batting practice and kept their chins up. Saterlee singles, Adikes walks and McCarroll hits an RBI shot down the 3rd base line. Satch and C- Dog score. Vellano is in front 2-0 and it was the old men that came through for the kids that have done it for them so far.

The top of the 5th sees Satch get another strike out.. he would have 8 before the night was over. Nathan Toms and James Hutton each handled a ground ball to get us back in the dug out.

The bottom of the 5th was when things really went our way. This makes the score very misleading. While Flood pitched this was virtually even. Hutton walked, Toms singled, Hoffman also walked.. so bases were loaded with no outs. Then Adikes and Dylan Jones hit back to back doubles to make it 6-0, and there is woud stay.

The top of the 6th Duncan took his place as “King of the Hill” Dylan Jones and Nathan Toms each made defensive plays behind him and just like that our kids were hitting the Vellano sign for the second time this year.

After the game all of the kids were invited to Kurver Kreme to celebrate. Only about half made it unfortunately. We look forward to another victory celebration very soon!

This is one win where all 12 of our kids should feel very good about it. Satch gave them a head start, but as we know it takes a team to win a tough game like this. A tip of our hat to the Daily Gazette kids who showed us that they are very game. We look forward to one more head to head game with them this year

Last night our last place team took on the first place Elks squad. This was a test for these young men. A lesser group would have conceded defeat and just gone through the motions. We had 2 players out including our lead off hitter.

Instead of “mailing one in”, the Brothers made all of the coaches and their parents proud by being a scrappy tight team for all 36 outs. We challenged them by asking kids that don’t normally pitch to pitch, and we continued to shuffle the batting order. Mike Dunn was our starting pitcher. It was his first time ever pitching in the majors, and here he was facing this squad of power hitters who are in first place and are defending City County Champions… Mike never looked twice. He took the ball, and ran up the hill.

Mike was overthrowing in the beginning (as we expect), but then settled down and got 2 strike outs, and a ground out to James Hutton. We were down 3-0, but the coaches and fans were all behind Mike. It was the most fired up our fans have gotten for a first inning.

The bottom of the first saw Taylor Pfaff from Elks strike out our top 3 batters. Taylor pitches in the Babe Ruth league, and on his modified team… This was a step up for the 10 year olds that faced him.

The top of the second was about our defense. The coaches told Mike Dunn that he would be pitching to the leading home run hitter in the league. His job was to throw strikes and let the defense work behind him. Mike Dunn doesn’t pitch around anyone. He has that Jalapeno fast ball, and he was sent out to serve it up. Our defense was perfect. James Hutton, Chris Adikes, and Nate McCarroll each caught a fly ball. The problem was in between there Elks blasted back to back home runs. Taylor Pfaff and Ryan Lambert hit long shots back to back. It was 6 to 0.

The bottom of the second was again about “working class heroes” that weren’t ever going to surrender. Jonathan Hoffman had a hard him ball caught, Nate McCarroll hit a big fly ball that was caught, Chris Adikes drew a walk and Duncan beat out an infield single to third. No runs but not going quietly into the night.

The top of the third was the inning that made the old man (me) most proud. Mike Dunn goes out, deep into his first game. The Elks kids are hitting the ball, but Mike has a darn near perfect defense behind him. On the day there were 7 balls hit into the outfield and our outfielders caught all 7 of them. In this inning Dylan Jones, Jonathan Hoffman and Duncan Satterlee all made great plays. We put a goose egg on the board!/

In the 4th we sent Dylan Jones to the mound.. back to back 10 year olds. Dylan is as game as they get. Dylan faced 5 batters in this inning and threw a first pitch strike to every one of them. Taylor Pfaff hit his second home run of the year, but other than that it was a defensive showcase. Duncan took 2 ground outs and Dylan took the final out himself with a strike out.

The bottom of the 4th as a “Funeral for Slumps” Mike Kane had a hard hit single and Duncan Satterlee had his best hit of the year. A red hot line drive to left field that was an easy double. Again no runs scored, but we are a game last place team giving nothing to the champs..

The 5th inning was Jonathan Hoffmans defensive play of the season. He made a 5-3 double play. Mike Kane made a big catch in left field that turned a likely triple into an out.

In the 6th inning, Christopher Adikes got his first pitching opportunity of the night. Facing three of the 12 year old all stars in order, he threw a no hit inning. He got defensive help from Mike Kane and Jonathan Hoffman making defensice catches.

As we got ready for our last ups down 7-0 the kids were chanting “Eight Run Rally.” They were only half kidding. James “Money” Hutton lead off with a single, followed by a Dylan Jones single. 2 Runners on and no outs.. and the big man Nathan Toms grabs his shiny new bat and heads for the batters box. The fans were cheering, and the dugout was vibrating..> 8 Run Rally 8 Run Rally… and finally at last… Nathan Toms took the 800lb gorilla off his back. Since draft day he has been projected as “The Franchise.” Other managers, coaches, parents and players have challenged him. The kid is 10 years old, a starting pitcher, shortstop and number 3 hitter. Every at bat you can cut the anticipation with a knife. At that exact moment, it was a simple as a pitcher, a batter and a baseball. Nathan took the very first pitch and let it fly. That bat made a sound that would wake the dead. It says “Home Run” in 143 languages.

Vellano had something wonderful to cheer about. Not as wonderful as a win, but much more memorable. We had a night when our kids did the little thing. We had a night of kids taking adversity like men. We had a game where fielders supported pitchers. There was selfless hitting, and a performance we could be proud of.

James Hutton his his first career home run at Cook Park this week. He did it against VFW with a runner on. It was a really big boost for our team. Hitting a homerun out of the majors field is a great accomplishment, but it is particularly special because James prides himself on being a contact hitter. James has the second highest batting average on the team, has gone the longest without a strike out and is noted for his ability to hit with 2 strikes. It is a rare kid that puts his team and base hits first and hits home runs along the way. James is a 2 year starter for Vellano, pitches, and is a utility infielder.

Photo coming on 5/8/2011

Nathan Toms hit his first career home run against Colonie Elks. As his teammates were being shut out against the defending City County champion Colonie Elks, Nathan stepped up and took matters into his own hands. With 2 runners on, his hit made him the first 10 year old to hit one out this year. It is very uncommon for a player who is 10, and a rookie in Majors to hit a homerun. Nathan who is normally all business and very serious, let our a Whoop and celebrated. It must be very hard to be 10 years old and have so many expectations on you. Nathan has handled the pressure very well.

Our team led the league in “getting stuck out” after a week.. Now only 2 teams have fewer strike outs.
so we are really putting the ball in play more often. We have also faced many teams #1 pitchers.

We also lead the league in getting “on base by error” This means that we get on base often and it gets scored as an error on the defensive team more often than any other team.

Coby Brickner has the 7th highest batting average in the league (96 kids.)

Jonathan Hoffman and Nathan Toms are two of the top 4 highest batting averages for 10 year olds.

6 teams have drawn more walks than we have, and only one has fewer.

We have the least number of kids “struck out looking” in the league (16)

We have scored 7 runs in each of our last 2 games.

Like country music our team is good even when it hurts…

It feels like we have unleashed the offensive dynamo that was hiding in our dugout. The bats were out and the bases were well traveled by our guys. On the other hand VFW had answers for us.

They sent 12 year old all-star, fourth year starter Joey Lombardi to the mound, and we matched that with rookie phenom Nathan Toms.

VFW had first ups and they drew first blood. Duncan Satterlee made a big catch in foul territory to put their lead off hitter out. Nathan Toms struck out their #2 hitter. We seem to get in the most trouble when we have 2 outs on the other team, and this was no exception. Back to back to back doubles by Lombardi, Kruzinski and Rennels made it 2-0 VFW before Nathan Toms recorded the final out by strike out.

It was nice to see our guys run into the dugout and grab helmets and bats when they were down 2-0. That is a confidence they were missing. We start off with a Coby single and a monster homerun by James Hutton. Not an ordinary homerun that makes the wall. This was a towering bomb that disappeared into the black sky on its way up and landed at least 30 feet beyond the right field wall.. this was a “No Doubter.”
Then Nathan Toms drew a walk, stole second and third and scored on a past ball…. Just like that we were up 3-2 in the first inning. The inning also showcased a big hard hit shot to left field by Duncan Satterlee that was caught. Proving once again that Duncan is the most least fortunate kid in the majors.

The second inning was more of the offensive showcase. Colin Nicholson hit a big single down the third base line, and a few walks later it was 4-3 VFW.

Vellano answers with lead off walks by Nate McCarroll and Mike Monthie. Nathan Toms hit a double that looked like a laser to center field. That scored the two base runners, then Nathan stole home on a passed ball and just like that we were back in the lead 7-4.

In the third inning we send Coby to the mound in relief. Coby strikes out the first 2 batters…. which should be a warning to us all. When we have 2 outs on the other team it is Kryptonite… Nicholson gets his second hit of the game, then Canastra, then Mazzie, then a fluke play allows Lombardi to reach, runs score. Finally Coby takes it for himself and strikes out the third out in the inning… Now we are losing 8-7.

Adikes got a single to deep right field in the third, Satterlee beat out a hit to the shortstop in the 5th, and Coby got a hit in the 6th… all of that went to naught as we just couldn’t get the hits to string together.

James Hutton came on to pitch in the 6th. He was able to strike out 2 batters and get a ground out… but good pitching couldn’t help us. We needed to score a few more runs too, and it just wasn’t going to happen.

Despite the loss, it was a good baseball game. Every single player contributed, we battled like lions, we didn’t give up until after the last strike was thrown. In the end there were plenty of proud parents, sweaty kids and one very hoarse manager.

We have practice on Thursday and games on Friday and Saturday. It promises to be exciting baseball!