Hillsborough Aces Find Success At The Right Time During 2014 Season

by Peter Elmalis

The Hillsborough Aces enjoy another successful season and get hot when it counts. This is the third season that the Aces have played together and continue to form bonds beyond baseball that they will remember forever. The team added a new player this past year and a full time professional manager, as well. The team put in a lot of hard work through the course of the winter months as they prepared for the long season ahead.

During the winter and spring the team participated in several local “A” level tournaments, as well as the USABL Spring 10U league’s American “Elite” division, the most difficult level of the 100+ team age group. The team had up and down results, but showed vast improvement as they moved forward to the heart of their summer schedule.

The Aces started the summer season by participating in the Clark tournament, were they lost a very tough extra inning game in the semifinals. This didn’t discourage the team though. Next on the schedule was a return trip to the Cal Ripken Facility in Aberdeen, MD. During this trip the team went 1-1 in pool play facing two of the top teams in the 20 team tournament. This was evident based on the same two teams eventually playing each other in the Championship game of the tournament. The Aces played in one final game during this special tournament and finished with a win. There was a lot a great baseball played, as well as fun experienced by the players and their families.

The team then finished the season by playing in four additional tournaments, simultaneously! These tournaments were the Montgomery, Cranford, South Brunswick, and Edison tournaments – all 10U “A” level events. The team made the championship games of all four tournaments, going 2-2 in those games. The Aces finished out the month of July with a 13-11 record, but going 7-3 in their last 10 games - plus winning many of the most important playoff games on their way to the four Championship games.

The last 24 hours of the season were tension filled and extremely exciting for the players and their families. It started with a 3-1 victory in the South Brunswick Tournament Semifinals against the Cal Ripken Northern NJ State Champion Monroe Falcons Purple team which just missed qualifying for the Cal Ripken National Tournament by one game and is considered to be one of the very best 10 year old teams in the Mid-Atlantic region (NJ, NY, PA, DE). The next day they played another perennial state power the Hopewell Valley Bulldogs in the first of two championship games that evening and beat them 2-0 in 7 innings. Hopewell was the runner up in the Cal Ripken Southern NJ State Championship. Finally, the team finished the season with a 12-5 win over Nottingham in the South Brunswick 10U A Championship. Two Championships on the final day of the season!

2014 Aces: Camryn Loniewski, Mikey Hoffman, Rocco Viscel, Jaime Mazuera, Nick Baldev, Kyle Elmalis, Jack Roteman, Jalen McDaniel, Steven Bordanaro, Tyler Michinard and Drew Allan.

Scorekeepers: Peter Allan and Dan Roteman

Coaches: Dan Baldev, Brian Loniewski, Mike Hoffman, Mike McDaniel

Managed by – Eric Eden