Travelling Teams Wrap Up With Playoffs

The West Orange Recreation baseball and softball travelling programs have had a productive summer and the number of teams has grown —five baseball teams and two softball squads have been active.

The baseball programs are made up of teams of 8-year-olds, 9-10-year-olds, 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds. The teams play at PAL Field, Degnan Field and West Orange High School.

The softball programs are made up by a 10-year-old and 12-year-old team. The baseball teams are members of either the Suburban League or Cedar Grove League. The softball clubs compete in a bi-county league with Morris County.

The season, which began in June, will wrap up with playoffs this week. 

"The past couple of years, we have only had about two or three teams for baseball; this year we had the most kids I could remember trying out across all those age levels," said Edwin Johnson of the recreation department, who has also coached the West Orange Junior American Legion team for years.

"Only the 9- and 10-year-olds did we combine ages; all the others were able to stand on their own, and we were able to introduce an eight-year-old team, which is the first time we have that in quite a few years."

Johnson praised volunteer coaches and the PAL and Mountaintop programs.

"I have to give credit to the volunteer coaches that we have had," said Johnson. "They have done a great job recruiting the kids. We also have a good partnership with PAL and Mountaintop, who run the baseball leagues in town. They were very aggressive in pushing the kids to try out for the traveling teams, so it was a really good collaborative effort between all of us."