The pieces fit for World Series-bound Pine Forge
Four years ago, a group of 15-year-olds ended their Junior Legion careers for the Boyertown Bear Cubs with a loss in the Junior Legion Eastern Regional Tournament.
After aging out of Junior Legion, the goal was to find a place they could stick together and have fun for the next three summers, while also developing their games.
“Back in Junior Legion we had a really good team,” Pine Forge first baseman Ben Longacre said. “We came up short, but we knew we had a good group and could be something special.”
Longacre, Jordan Shustack, Nate Kline, Mitch Pinder, Seth Endy, John DeMartino, Aaron Kratz, Tom Randall and David Terry arrived at Pine Forge’s Senior Babe Ruth program in 2014 with ambitions of building on what they had started at the previous level.
That process began with a trip to the state championship in their first year, and continued with a third-place finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regional last summer.
Beginning Aug. 6, the group will play in its last tournament together, the Senior Babe Ruth World Series in Ephrata, Washington.
Shustack’s two-out, two-run single in the Mid-Atlantic championship game on July 24 helped validate the decision the group made three years ago and send Pine Forge farther than any other team in the Senior Babe Ruth program’s 22 years of existence.
“We all expected to do well because we’ve been playing successful baseball for a long time,” Randall said. “We expected to come here and be successful. We always thought World Series was a possibility, but now that we’re there it’s completely different. It’s awesome.”
Pine Forge manager Rich Zuber, who is Shustack’s uncle, and his son-in-law/assistant coach Andy Duffy were familiar with several members of their team before they came to the program.
They coached or coached against some of them in biddy basketball when they were in fifth grade and got to know some others when they
came out to watch Shustack in a few Bear Cubs games.
The familiarity with Zuber and Duffy, as well as the hands off coaching style the two coaches use helped draw the core group of nine to Pine Forge.
“We were just a little more comfortable with the atmosphere here,” Shustack said. “A little more laid back. As we were getting into our high school years we just wanted to have some fun, not too many practices and stuff like that because when you’re playing on the school team it’s full throttle. We wanted some free time, get a job, so I think this was the right decision.”
After a third-place finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals last season, the team knew it had the talent to go to the World Series. A few extra pieces added to the mix this year have helped push them over the top.
Danny Monzo and Nick Chroscinski, who played for Duffy at the Hill School joined this year. Chroscinski hit home runs in both the league championship and state championship. Jonathan Wack has added depth to the pitching staff and lineup after playing for Pine Forge’s other Senior Babe Ruth team last summer.
Ryan Jacobs, who played on Boyertown Area High School’s state championship team this spring has developed into the Indians’ No. 3 hitter. Without a Senior Babe Ruth program in their area Jose Santana, Jairo Pichardo and Ener Rosario joined the team this summer from Reading.
“They were just some pieces of the puzzle that we needed to fit in because we had some kids leave last year and the year before,” Shustack said. “They’ve become a really big part of the team. We get along well and we play together well.”
The team will fly out to Washington on Thursday and play its first game against New England on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Indians will play the Northern Washington state champ on Sunday at 3 p.m. and the Pacific Northwest representative on Monday at 2 p.m. Pool play will conclude on Wednesday against Southwest at 11 a.m.
Follow the Pine Forge team’s Twitter account @ pineforgesrbabe for updates on the team. The team’s games will be streamed on www.baberuthleague.org.
“It’s really cool to see where we’ve all come from where we started,” Pinder said. “Most of us started when we were nine all playing together. All through Little League and up until now it’s culminating into this, going to Ephrata, Washington. It’s pretty cool especially with all the support from our parents and us being so close as a team. It’s pretty special.”