Underdog Ingomar falls after cruising in East Zone
It’s that time of year when youth baseball organizations compete around the country for a chance to advance to the World Series in their age group. Most notable is the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., and the Pony League World Series in Whittier, Calif., this year.
This past weekend, the Ingomar 13U team competed in the Pony League East Zone Championship in Cranberry, consisting of teams from Connecticut, Tennessee, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.
Ingomar, which was representing Pennsylvania, went 1-2 in the tournament, losing both games to eventual champion Chesterfield Virginia. Virginia also won the International Championship two years ago. Ingomar’s win came against New Bedford, Mass., 9-8.
Ingomar served as somewhat of an underdog, comprised with players from four in-house teams from one school district. In comparison, the team from Virginia chose from 36 inhouse teams from 36 school districts. But nothing will take away from the success that coach Mark Feczko’s team accomplished.
“It was fantastic,” Feczko said. “For the most part, this team has been together for a few years. To get as close as we did was fantastic. Clearly, we were the underdog this weekend but the boys didn’t let that affect them. They didn’t back down to the bigger organizations. We played evenly with them [Virginia] for both games. I am proud of what the boys did and fought all the way to the end.”
To get to that point, the boys of Ingomar took care of business, going undefeated on their way to a Pony League Regional Championship in Boardman, Ohio. They went 5-0 in a tournament that consisted of teams from Maryland, Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
“Our strength is usually our pitching and defense and that was true in that tournament,” Feczko said. “In addition our bats really came alive. We really scored a lot more runs than we usually do. We had timely hitting. It helped out our pitching.
“Everyone played their part. Everyone contributed with great defense or timely hitting throughout the tournament.”
In that tournament, Ingomar outscored its opponents, 44-15. In the championship game, Ben Petschke and Ryan Feczko combined for the win on the mound. Offensively, Eric Barbus clinched the win with a walk-off double to the fence, and Justin Altmeyer had four hits. C.J. Weller had three hits and Reid Fisher and Tyler Pullen had two hits each. Braydon Meyers, Quentin Halyama, Stefan Kidd, A.J. Maslo and Conor McSparran also had several hits in the tournament and also played outstanding defense.
Ingomar also won its regular-season championship in the Quad County League with a 11-1 record.
Due to its involvement in the Pony League postseason, it had to postpone its conference playoffs as well as a tournament in Washington.
Ingomar will resume both tournaments now that it is done with its obligations in the Pony League playoffs.
Currently at 26-4, Ingomar has witnessed a lot of success this season, something it hopes will carry over to next year when the Pony League World Series is held in Washington, Pa.
“The boys put up in many practices and hard days to get to this point,” Feczko said. “Now that we have seen what is out there, we are looking forward to qualifying and performing in Washington next year.”