After losing the district title to Marlton for the second year in a row, receiving the second place invitation to the state tournament once again was a bitter pill to swallow for Rich O’Brien’s Medford Renegades.
It was an honor nonetheless to be invited to play in a tournament against the best teams in the state, and the Renegades had great success doing so.
However when they found themselves coming up short in the state finals both years, it was once again to their cross-town rivals.
It began to get into the heads of the kids every time they took the field against the team in red, regardless of how much success they were having to that point, that it was sure to come crashing down.
“Marlton is a great team, and there is a lot of mutual respect for each other, but we always seemed to make some crucial mistakes when we played them,” O’Brien said.
A successful regular season culminated in the team finishing with a record of 27–8, but when the 10U Cal Ripken District Tournament schedule came out, the team saw that they would be opening up against Marlton.
“I was really surprised to hear from the team that they were happy we were playing them first. They were up for the challenge and ready to get the monkey off their backs,” O’Brien said.
In the first game of districts, Medford beat Marlton 13–4, the first time defeating this team since the boys were 8 years old.
However the resilient bunch from Marlton worked their way through the losers bracket and was able to get another shot against Medford for the third year in a row in the district final.
After two years of finishing runner up, Medford beat Marlton in a barnburner by a score of 6–5 to win the 10U Cal Ripken District 5 Title in Southampton.
Great pitching by Max Kaufer and Jackson Logar, awesome defensive play by Brett Balzan, Manny Roach and Dean Bialous, and Oskar Heino’s timely walk-off double to win the final game were the major highlights that led to the team finally breaking through against their rivals.
“When we finally beat Marlton in the district tournament the boys were elated and they really started to believe in themselves, which gave them a lot of confidence going into the state tournament,”
After winning the district tournament, the team went on to the 10U Cal Ripken State Tournament in Hamilton.
In the opening game of the state tournament, the team faced the District 2 champions, Brick American.
Nick O’Brien led the way against Brick America in the 13–0 Renegade victory. O’Brien pitched a complete game shut out and went 3–3 with five RBIs, including a three-run home run to put the game out reach.
The Renegades then went on to beat the district 3 champions, Egg Harbor Township, by a score of 12–6, led by Jackson Logar’s strong pitching effort and great defensive play by Brett Balzan at catcher. Oskar Heino, Brett Balzan, Max Kaufer, Nick O’Brien and Manny Roach all had a multi-hit game in the win against Egg Harbor Township.
The team then faced Washington Township, and in a great pitching dual won 2–0. Max Kaufer went five strong innings with five strike outs to earn the win, and Nick O’Brien came in the game in the bottom of the sixth inning to get the save.
The state final was a rematch against Washington Township in which Washington Township jumped out to an early 2–0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Medford came right back in the bottom of the first inning with timely hitting by Oskar Heino, Nick O’Brien and Dylan Terwilliger to go up 4–2. Jackson Logar started the game and pitched three solid innings with four strikeouts and Nick O’Brien pitched the last three innings and recorded five strikeouts, including a strikeout to end the game in the sixth inning with two outs and a man on third base.
The 5–4 win over Washington Township earned the team the 10U Cal Ripken southern New Jersey State title.
“Our mottos throughout the district, state and regional tournaments were ‘it’s our time’ and ‘no one has worked harder.’ We just kept reminding the boys to keep it simple and focus on one pitch at a time, one inning at a time and one game at a time,” O’Brien said.
After winning the southern New Jersey State title, the team went on to the 10U Cal Ripken Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament in Warrington, Pa., which included the 10U Cal Ripken State title winners from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.
“The boys have dreamed about making the regional tournament and representing Medford and Southern New Jersey in that tournament for more than two years, and although we knew we were improving, you never know for sure how the team will perform in crunch time,” O’Brien said.
The Medford Renegades finished 3–1 after pool play with wins against northern New Jersey (Bridgewater-Raritan), western New York (Lou Gehrig/Buffalo) and southeastern PA (Warrington) and a loss to the eventual Mid-Atlantic Regional winner Maryland (Upper Montgomery Athletic Club).
“We had a feeling we would be competitive in the regional tournament because southern New Jersey has historically performed well in regional play, but I had no idea we would finish in the top four teams of the Mid-Atlantic Region,” O’Brien said.
Earning the second seed after pool play, Medford went on to win its quarterfinal game against Brandywine Youth Club in extra innings, but unfortunately lost in the semi-final game against Southwest Pennsylvania.
The team performed well with outstanding pitching efforts by Max Kaufer, Jackson Logar, Nick O’Brien and Brett Balzan. O’Brien (.588 batting average), Kaufer (.579), Balzan (.375), Manny Roach (.333) and Liam Kennealy (.333) led the way offensively and strong defensive play by Manny Roach, Dean Bialous, Oskar Heino, Dylan Terwilliger, James Moriarty, and Andrew Cobb kept the team in every game.
Though it was sobering to finally see the magical season come to an end, coach O’Brien huddled his team up one last time and took a step back from being in the moment to tell them how proud he was of them.
“To finish in the top four teams in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware is a pretty nice achievement. The boys worked really hard all season, they came together as a team and they deserve all the success they have accomplished,” O’Brien said.
Now that the team has finally had some down time, it has had a chance to look back and reflect on the summer and a season that it will never forget.
The players and coaches attributed a lot of their success to the support they received from the community and from the families of the team members.
“It was a tremendous experience for the players and the coaches. We had great team chemistry this year and our fan support was unbelievable. We had moms, dads, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends of the team traveling to all of our games, so the entire experience was something that we will all cherish for a very long time,” O’Brien said.
From a baseball standpoint the coaches spent a lot of time in the offseason focusing on the defensive side of the game.
This team had always been strong with the bats so the coaches figured if they could solidify the defensive end and get hot at the right time they could make a run like this.
They also held a team meeting back in April in which the coaches had the players write down their goals for the year to help the team focus and visualize what it wanted to achieve this year.
Little did they know, many of these goals would come true, and the team would have a season full of great memories.
We had finally achieved what we were working so hard for all these years. I had a blast this season!” right fielder Andrew Cobb said. “We always had a great time at all the hotels we stayed at and that helped us become better friends. I’m very proud of my team for everything we achieved.”
“The experience was very exciting to travel all around for the tournaments this year, and I think it was a privilege to make it to that level of competition. I found joy in contributing to the team’s success,” center fielder Manny Roach said.
O’Brien plans to coach the team again next year in their 11U season. A season that will surely be approached by the boys with a renewed sense of confidence after their sensational run and finally breaking through against Marlton.
