While the Little League all-star tournaments already completed their pool play, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Babe Ruth 15s have been preparing for the opening day of their tournament, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday, July 10 at Hopewell against Lawrence.
Manager Carlos De La Rosa says the team’s strength is in its ability to play “fundamental” baseball. “We’ve got a good hitting team from top to bottom,” he says. “Our pitching is strong. If all that meshes, we’re going to do well.”
The team will see a healthy helping of pitching coming from its top five pitchers — Joe Jensen, Kyle Inverso, Mark De La Rosa, Marcus Henderson, and Isaiah Edmonds — all of whom also provide strong offense at bat. De La Rosa says he also has a young pitcher, Chris Galkowski, who throws the ball well.
Chris Skolka is the team’s strong catcher, and the 15s will see good defense from Ryan Shanaberger, Travis De La Rosa, Joseph Cirafici, Patrick O’Connell, Sean O’Connell, and Josh Rose.
“We have a good hitting team, and we try to hold down the errors,” says De La Rosa. “We’re making sure that we get our plays down. We’re also working hard on hitting. We’re trying to give them as much hitting practice as possible.”
If West Windsor-Plainsboro defeats Lawrence, it will play the winner of the Hopewell-Hamilton game. That game would take place on Sunday, July 12, at 10 a.m. If any team in the district loses one game, that team is sent to the losers bracket to continue. However, if a team loses twice, it is eliminated from the tournament.
“We have a very good team; a majority of them have played together in one way or another,” says De La Rosa. “We should be able to go pretty far.”
