Little League World Series a 'Dream' for Par-Troy

When he first watched the 8-year-old Par-Troy East Little League all-stars, Mike Ruggiero could sense something.

Those kids were just learning the game, but he knew something big might be brewing.

Ruggiero is a good coach, but four years later he looks like a prophet as well.

That team has proven how right Ruggiero was and is now playing on Little League Baseball’s biggest stage. These Par-Troy East Little League all-stars have become one of the world’s 16 best teams and Friday at 3 p.m., they make their Series debut at Lamade Stadium against San Antonio, Texas.

“Mike came up to me that summer (four years ago) and said there was something special about this group,” Par-Troy East Little League President John Bucciarelli said. “He said right then we had to do what we could to keep this team together."

It has stuck together for the most part and now it is making history. The team from Parsippany is the first in league history to win a state championship, let alone reach the Little League World Series. It also is the first New Jersey team other than Toms River to reach the Series since Nottingham in 1992.

The countless hours practicing year-round have paid off. Parsippany is right where so many other leagues and teams wish they were. More than 2,000 teams competed in all-star tournaments in the Mid-Atlantic region alone.

And now Parsippany has emerged as the best.

"It’s like a storybook,” Ruggiero said. “It’s a dream what’s going on right now and I can’t believe I’m living it. The kids worked so hard and here we are.”

Not that Parsippany is satisfied.

These coaches and players have worked the last four years for this moment and now that they are here, they don’t want the good times to end.

“We’re here now and we would love to win it and we’re going to stay focused and try our best to win the whole thing,” Ruggiero said. “We’d love to win it, but you can’t feel bad if you don’t come home with another banner because there’s no next level. You feel bad if you lose in states or regionals because you were almost there and wonder what if, but to be here is an amazing achievement."

Parsippany has proven as tough as talented, fighting back after dropping its state tournament opener to win five games in three days before going 5-1 at the Mid-Atlantic tournament.

Emil Matti pitched a brilliant two-hit shutout in the final and Bener Uygun homered as .

It was a game that symbolized what makes this team so good as the defense was exceptional all-around, the hitting timely and the pitching superb.

That is a performance Parsippany hopes to build on against Texas, the Southwest champion. Texas rolled through the Southwest Region and blanked Lufkin, Texas 9-0 in the championship. It has shut out its last three opponents and lost just once this summer.

It will be a tough game, but Parsippany seems to like those best, going 6-0 in elimination games this summer and shutting out both Maryland and Delaware in its last two games.

Parsippany also could have a distinct crowd advantage since it is the field’s defacto home team and had more than 900 fans travel to Bristol, Conn., for the Mid-Atlantic championship.

Parsippany has waited a long time for this. Nobody there wants to miss it.

“It just shows how well the community supports this team,” Bucciarelli said. “To see the entire community rally around this team is great. This team is doing something we’ll remember forever.”