Toms River East Little League Begins Region Title Quest

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River East Little League all-star baseball team is in Connecticut this weekend for the next step in its quest to reach the Little League World Series.

The team won the New Jersey State Little League Championship last weekend and will be playing in the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament beginning Sunday morning.

It's the first time a team from Toms River has been to Bristol, Connecticut, since 2014, when the Toms River Little League all-stars reached the Mid-Atlantic region tournament.

For the Toms River East Little League, it's been 22 years since the league was represented at the region tournament. The 1999 team went to the Little League World Series, a year after the "Beast of the East" team that included Major League Baseball star Todd Frazier won the 1998 Little League World Series championship.

The current team of 12-year-olds is hoping to replicate the success of the 1998 team. So far, they are unbeaten through the games they have played, according to Shore Sports Network, claiming the District 18 and Section 3 titles en route to winning the state championship.

They have shown the ability to hit and score a lot of runs; in eight of its 14 wins Toms River East scored 10 runs or more, according to the Asbury Park Press. The team also has been strong defensively, however, recording eight shutouts, including two in the Section 3 tournament. Toms River East allowed six runs to Manchester Lakehurst in the District 18 tournament but has been stingy since, with only Hillsdale scoring more than two runs against them, in Toms River's 8-4 state championship victory.

The team, managed by Paul Mika, headed to Bristol on Friday and early Saturday, Mika said, to check in and settle in. Their first game is at 10 a.m. Sunday against the Delaware state champions from Canal Little League in Bear, Delaware.

The tournament is double elimination, with the semifinal and elimination bracket final on Thursday and the Mid-Atlantic championship game on Aug. 14. The early-round games are being televised on ESPN+ and the semifinal, elimination final and championship games on ESPN.

The Mid-Atlantic champion and runner-up advance to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the Little League World Series, which includes only U.S. teams this year because of the pandemic.

The team is has a GoFundMe campaign set up to defray the costs of the tournament travel. Information on donating can be found here.

GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.

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