LOCAL YOUTH TEAM ON STAGE IN INDIANA
WEST PALM BEACH — “Every play counts” is the motto that helped the Phipps Park Barracudas all-star team go from almost losing five consecutive games in the Southeast Regional Championship to competing in the 2018 Cal Ripken 10-year-old World Series.
“We were down five straight games in the championships. We lost early and then had to fight back through the losers bracket,” said coach Tom Pastore. “We were losing the last game 3-0 and then won 6-5. I am very, very proud of these guys.”
The 12-member team from West Palm Beach won the Southeast Regional Championships in Jacksonville Beach on July 22, with a 7-1 win over the West Raleigh Blue from North Carolina. Now, the Barracudas are headed to Vincennes, Indiana, for their chance to be World Series champs. It’s quite a feat for the young team, made up of 10-year-olds (and a few 11-year-olds who are eligible under the Cal Ripken rules if they are age 10 up to May 1).
“The kids have worked their whole lives for this,” said Pastore, who has coached the team for five years. “We think we are going to do all right. Eighty percent of these kids have been together since they were 5 years old.”
Lori DeJesus said her son, Julian, and his teammates “are best friends on the field and off it.” She, like the other parents, is proud of what the team has accomplished. They beat out 11,000 other teams to get to this point.
“It’s so exciting for the boys,” DeJesus said. “They have worked really hard.”
The team will be in Indiana from Thursday through Aug. 12, where they’ll compete against 11 other teams from across the country. They play their first game Saturday.
When asked if he was nervous about his competition, player John Walsh said, “No, not really. I feel like we are going to win.” And, his teammates agreed.
Leading up to the big tournament, the team is getting in a lot of practice.
“I come out with my dad every day. I throw 500 baseballs and then hit, hit, hit,” said pitcher John Cimballa. “It’s been working, because I’ve been hitting a lot of home runs.”
Pastore says Cimballa may be a pitcher, but he also “hits like Babe Ruth.”
Going into the World Series, Pastore and the parents are giving the kids the same advice: Take it all in.
Pastore wants his players to “smell the grass and enjoy the moment ... because this is not something a lot of kids get to do.”
Likewise, DeJesus told her son to enjoy every minute because she knows how hard the kids worked to make it this far.
“It really is a success story. I think most of our games, we were the underdogs,” DeJesus said. “We were losing the games. Then, in the last minute, we came back. That just says a lot about the coaches, this team and the kids. They just don’t give up.”
The team has set up a GoFundMe account to help offset the cost of transportation, accommodations and other expenses associated with the tournament. As of late Saturday, the team had raised more than $2,100 toward its goal of $20,000.