Madison Youth Baseball Teams Excel, Advance To National Tournament

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

MADISON, CT – Madison has always been known as a football town but a group of pre-teen baseball players are determined to make their own impact in this sports-crazed town.

Two teams in the Madison Travel Baseball league, the 9 and under and 10 and under teams have had remarkable years – both recently winning a prestigious tournament in Long Island.

Both teams finished on top in their respective divisions at the Northeast National AAU Qualifier in North Branford with the 9U's winning five straight games for the title while the 10U's had four decisive victories for their crown.

In doing such, both teams earned an automatic bid to the 2017 AAU Grand National Tournament being held from June 18-24th at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, FL.

The 9U team won't be attending this year but the 10U coaches, players and parents have all agreed and committed to making the trip to Florida to compete at the national level against teams from Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Puerto Rico.

In addition to their early season success, both the 9U and 10U Tiger teams recently traveled to Long Island to compete in the Baseball Heaven/LI Ducks Spring Invitational Tournament in Yaphank, NY from May 19th-21st. Competition was fierce with teams from CT, RI, NY and NJ participating in the tournament.

The 9U Tigers, led by head coach Jim Maynard, once again elevated their level of play and went a perfect 5-0 to capture the first place trophy. "There is no "I" in team," Maynard said,

"We had a different hero for each game and what made the experience so special was the MTB community rallying behind one another. When one team was not playing, players and families from older Tiger teams would take the time to come cheer on one another,” Maynard said.

Along with Maynard the 9U team is coached by Paige Brennan, Rob Horn and Shane Tanner. All four coaches are Madison dads that simply have a passion for the game and volunteer their time and expertise.

With the 9U team taking the title early in the day, the 10U team needed some luck from the baseball gods at Baseball Heaven.

An opening round loss to the mighty LI Ducks left them with an outside shot at the wild card spot for their division. Luck is just what they got.

The 10U Tigers grabbed the 4th seed and moved to the semifinals in a rematch with the LI Ducks, who ended 2016 as the 30th ranked 10U team in the country.

It was a tall order for head coach Marc Markovitz and staff but the Tigers were up to the challenge. "The coaches and I believed our boys could compete with them, we just needed to make them believe it." Markovitz said,

"This was a classic David v Goliath story as the Ducks are a phenomenal nationally ranked program. I could not be more proud of the effort and the result,” said Markovitz.

“This is truly a special group of athletes and I believe their best is yet to come!” Markovitz said.

The 10U Tigers are also coached by resident dads Craig Patla, Pete Kasper and Brett Simmons.