New Canaan 12-year-old All-Stars reach World Series
New Canaan Baseball will be represented on a national stage when the New Canaan 12-year-old All-Star team travels to Missouri for the Cal Ripken Major70 World Series next week.
New Canaan won its way through the District, State and finally the New England Regional Tournament to qualify for the World Series.
The Rams are now heading to Branson, Missouri for the Cal Ripken World Series which begins Friday, Aug. 6
“Every kid’s goal is to represent us as far as they can. This year they are 12 and this is the pinnacle year for them,” New Canaan coach Mitch Hoffman said. “Since these kids have been 7 they totally bought in to the program. We have 30 kids graduating from this travel program as 12year olds. This is a program victory, not just a team victory.”
The 2021 Cal Ripken Major70 World Series will be televised exclusively on STADIUM (www.watchstadium.com).
Many of the current 12-year olds played on the team that went to the 10year Old World Series in 2019, reaching the semifinals.
There are also a handful
of players on this team who did not play on that team but played in the system and worked their way up to the top team and as well as kids who moved into town since 2019.
There was no World Series last summer due to COVID-19.
New Canaan is scheduled to play four games in pool play before hopefully advancing to the single elimination tournament.
The Rams are in Pool A along with West Fargo, North Dakota; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Rockville, Virginia and host Branson.
Their opening game is Aug. 6 at 1 p.m. against West Fargo followed by a game Saturday against Branson at 7 p.m.; vs Rockville Sunday at 1 p.m. and Cherry Hill Monday at 9 a.m.
The single-elimination tournament begins Wednesday Aug. 11 with the championship game scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 14
In the New England Regional Championship, New Canaan beat Swansea/ Somerset, Mass. 11-0 in the championship game. New Canaan had previously lost to the same team 9-5 in pool play.
New Canaan beat Dover, N.H. 11-0 in the quarterfinals and rival Greenwich 6-0 in the semifinals to reach the championship game.
The Rams had 69 hits in Regionals, outscoring opponents 53-9.
In the final game, they had home runs from their Nos. 2, 8 and 10 hitters.
“When we are at our best, the bottom of the lineup has carried us,” Hoffman said. “We lost that game to Swansea/Somerset but we bounced back. This year we were 43-6 and sometimes baseballs bounce the right way for you and sometimes they bounce the wrong way. You will have days that you are not great but the beauty of that format is that we only had to play one additional game after losing.”
Hoffman said he knew his players were focused on the goal of getting back to a World Series and hopes now they can bring a national title back to New Canaan.
“The mental fortitude of these kids is so great. Its even better than some of the high school teams I’ve coached,” Hoffman said. “The best part of this team is that we are truly a team. We know we can’t rely on one person to carry us. It takes every kid doing something for us to be where we are. The only stat we care about is winning. The kids in the field and the kids on the bench have all bought into the culture. That’s why we are going back to the World Series.”