It’s been a banner season already for the (BLL) all-star 10-and-under softball squad.
The team's campaign started on June 22 and goes until July 30. Players compete in both the Westchester Putnam Baseball Association's (WPBA) softball division, where they hold a 5-0 record, and the Williamsport Tournament.
Yorktown, Mahopac, Somers and East Fishkill are the teams that Brewster plays in the WPBA.
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The Williamsport Tournament started with Brewster beating Cortlandt twice to win the District 33 championship, which encompasses parts of Northern Westchester and Putnam Counties. The win enabled Brewster to move on to the next phase, which is Wednesday at Walkill. Field location, time and opponent are still to be determined.
“Winning the district helps our program,” Brewster coach Kevin Lennox said. “The kids get to have a banner. It makes them feel better about themselves. Now we move on to the next one. Each game gets harder and harder and harder because you are playing against all the teams that won their districts.”
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Playing in the summer is an important part of the players’ development, according to Lennox.
“It lets them have a chance to play on a travel team and lets them know what it’s going to be like from now right until high school,” he told Patch. “It’s gives them a great opportunity to work on their fundamentals.”
Lennox said that most of his players love playing the game so much that they won’t even go on vacation until the season is over.
“It’s what they live for,” Lennox said. “Most of them have been playing since they were 6-years-old. As they get older, when they are around 12 years-old, you find out who really likes it. By the time they are 12, you know who the ones are that really love the game.”
The squad’s games and practices are held at and at , with practices running between 6 and 8 p.m. and games starting at 6 p.m. The team practices two times a week and play three games a week.
The players will look to follow in the footsteps of a varsity team that won its league this season and have boasting rights to one of the best players in Section 1 in pitcher, second baseman Jess Griesinger. She is slated to play softball at Bridgeport next season.
“They can’t wait to play on the varsity [team] themselves,” Lennox said. “Some of these kids practice very hard. They go to pitching lessons and batting lessons all the time. They spend a lot of time working on their game and those girls did too."
Some of the varsity players give catching, fielding and hitting lessons to the youngsters. Griesinger is one of the varsity players that has given instruction to the next generation of softball players in Brewster. She herself played in the BLL softball program and was on the 12-and-under all-star team in 2006. That year's team won the district, section and states and placed third in regionals.
“That was one of my favorites years playing softball,” Griesinger said. “It was great, I was with all my friends, it was so enjoyable. Just being with everyone, we all wanted it so bad, it was our last year in little league."
She recalled that her coach, Mark Sergio, would always say "nine girls, take it one game at a time." That stuck with the players, who would make it a point to focus on each game — and every pitch, every catch, every swing and inning that went with it.
"The experience of playing then helped me learn how to handle playing at every other level after that," Griesinger said.
Making up the Brewster squad are Karen Lennox, Kaitlin Gaglio, Ellie Keefe, Keegan O'Connor, Evelyn Prinze, Camryn Gannon, Caroline Cherubini, Grace Coughlin, Taylor Riccardi, Francesca Cioffi, Grace Harrison and Erin Kirkpatrick. Coaches are Kevin Lennox and Frank Cioffi.
