Ledyard Hosting Cal Ripken Youth Tourney

A team of 9-year-old all-stars, including two sets of twins, will experience their first taste of tournament baseball tonight at  on Stoddard's Wharf Road.

Ledyard's 9-and-under all-stars in Cal Ripken Baseball will undoubtedly be nervous, but not as nervous as the other entries who will have to travel to Ledyard. The locals host Preston in the five-team Ripken District 6, which will also include squads from Coventry, Marlborough and Salem.

The 9s are the youngest division to play all-stars in Cal Ripken, which is the youth section of Babe Ruth Baseball. Ripken is one of the fastest growing youth leagues since 2001, attracting town Little Leagues away from the more established and publicized Williamsport, Pa. sanctioned Little League which stages its World Series on ABC and ESPN.

Ledyard is one of few area towns to adopt Ripken baseball as part of its youth baseball offerings. The major difference between Little League and Ripken ball is the latter features 70 feet distances between bases for 11s and 12s as opposed to 60 feet for Little League and a slightly longer distance than Little League's 45 feet from pitching rubber to home plate.

"There is nothing wrong with traditional Little League," Ledyard youth baseball president John Carrington said. "But Ledyard chose Ripken ball years ago and invested money to change its field to those dimensions, so there is no going back.

"With the longer bases, the game is more traditional baseball," he added. "Runners can lead off the base and steal bases. It's not as much as a pitcher-dominated game."

Ledyard's U10 and U12 Ripken All-Stars were eliminated in District tournaments. The town's 13 and 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars won a couple of games each in District 6 tournaments against the likes of Waterford, Groton and New London but did not advance to the states. Ledyard's best 15 year olds play Junior American Legion, thus the town did not field a 15-year old all-star team.

"Everyone appears on board with the town set up for youth baseball," Carrington said. "The important factor is plenty of kids are getting a chance to play baseball with talented kids competing in an all-star travel situation."

Wayne Grim is coach of the team, which includes two sets of twins - the Thorntons and the Gebhards.

Brayden Grim, Andrew Boudah, John Gebhard, Richard Gebhard, Riley Gagnon, Cade Walters, Jacob Sylvia, Andrew Bourguignon, Matthew Thornton, Elliott Smith, Brendan Thornton, Nikolas Bailey and Cody Jones comprise the team.

The double-elimination tournament continues over the weekend and into next week. The winner advances to the State Tournament in Bethel July 23.