The East Orange 9/10 All Stars tried their best, but were not able to come up with the right combination of pitching, hitting, and fielding to overcome Maitland.    The Maitland pitcher had solid control and a slow release that seemed to create challenges for our normally strong bats to come alive.

While the kids and parents were certainly disappointed, we all have a lot to be thankful for this short season.  We had three excellent coaches who took vacation time and extra time off work to help teach our kids the subtle aspects of the game.  We even had Joel Glass volunteer to pitch batting practice and sacrifice his shoulders and chins to numerous line drives from Combat baseball bats.  Trust me, Joel will agree the ball really jumps off the Combat bats.  Every young player got better by being part of this team.

Most important are the friendships that were created between our kids and parents alike. Over the past few weeks numerous sleepovers were arranged (by kids, not by parents (I think)) and play dates were arranged.  Our kids got along very well and supported each other throughout long and hot practices.

Over time, the kids will remember not the final score of the last game, but all of the fun experiences they had this past season.   They were an East Orange All Star !