By The TimesLedger
The DAC Jam Service 9- and 10-year-olds ended the regular season with a 11-3 record and a playoff berth against their crosstown rivals Bayside Little League in the 2002 Rosenbluth Tournament.
“I’m very happy for these boys who came to every game with a lot of confidence,” said manager Tony Zavattieri. “These boys were a great pleasure to coach and never gave up if they were behind.”
In their playoff game against Bayside, DAC scored three runs in the first inning. A lead-off single by Johnny Liqouri, a walk by John Massa, and an RBI single from Vincent Florido with some very aggressive base running gave DAC the lead.
Bayside scored five runs in the bottom of the first and one run in the second to take the lead, 6-3, but that was all the scoring Bayside would get, with Vincent Florido shutting down Bayside the rest of the game.
DAC began the fourth inning with a lead-off single from Greg Polkowski and a great at-bat from Brandon Rosenthal to draw a walk. With one out and two men on base, Josh Ramirez hit a double into the outfield to score two runs, bringing DAC within one run.
The infield of Nick Zavattieri (1B), Johnny Liqouri (2B), John Siano (SS), and Greg Polkowski (3B) stopped everything they could get their gloves on. Whatever got by the infield was backed up with perfection by Tommy Wojciechowski (CF), Brandon Rosenthal (LF), Brandon Sheiner (LF), Josh Ramirez (RF) and Michael Gallagher (RF).
The fifth inning produced two more runs for DAC, with an RBI-single from Nick Zavattieri and a RBI-triple off Tommy Wojo’s bat. DAC also scored two runs in the sixth inning, when John Siano smacked a lead-off with a single and Johnny Liqouri and John Massa hit back-to-back doubles.
DAC won the game 9-6 with a fantastic effort from all of boys. Missing from the lineup was Andrew Gross, whose all out effort and determination throughout the season was a part of DAC’s run to the championship game.
With bad weather taking over, the championship game was not able to be played and produced co-champions, with DAC and Forest Hills.
Congratulations to the DAC Jam Service All-stars: Johnny Liqouri, John Massa, Nick Zavattieri, Tommy Wojciechowski, Vincent Florido, Greg Polkowski, Brandon Rosenthal, John Siano, Josh Ramirez, Mike Gallagher, Andrew Gross and Brandon Sheiner.
Special thanks go out to assistant coach Tom Wojciechowski and all the parents for their support.
