Playing seven games in three days this past week, the Peconic Hockey Association’s 10-and-under Wildcats, coached by Jason Craig, improved to 20-3-1, and thus clinched a playoff spot in the Long Island Amateur Hockey League’s 10-U Tier III division.
Chris Minardi, one of Craig’s assistants, said by phone Sunday afternoon that the day before, at the Buckskill Winter Club, the 10-and-unders bested the Freeport Arrows 7-5, after which the team traveled to Brewster, N.Y., in Westchester County, where it won both ends of a doubleheader by scores of 10-2 and 9-3. Those wins elevated the Wildcats from sixth to third place in league play, said Minardi, whose son, Cam, centers one of the team’s lines.
The Wildcats followed up with back-to-back-to-back wins over the Long Beach Lightning (15-3), the Great Neck Bruins (20-0), and the New York City Skyliners (5-4) at Buckskill on Sunday. “And on Friday,” said Minardi, “we beat the Port Washington Edge 13-1.”
The New York Cyclones finished atop the 14-team league at 23-2-1. The Rinx 10-U team was the runner-up, at 23-0-0, with the Wildcats third, and the Dix Hills Hawks fourth, at 17-9-0.
“We’ll play the Rinx team in Brooklyn this coming weekend,” said Minardi, “and the Cyclones will play the Hawks. We’ve played the Rinx team three times and they’ve won all three, but one of those games we should have won. We can beat them if our boys want it.”
The Wildcats’ leading scorer is Grady Craig, the coach’s son, with more than 70 goals. Cam Minardi has more than 60, his father said, and Hunter Harrington, a defenseman with “a mean slapshot,” has more than 20.
Looking ahead to spring, Little League registration is under way through easthamptonlittleleague.com, John Grisch, the organization’s new president, said this week.
The two state-of-the-art turf fields at Stephen Hand’s Path that are replacing two at Pantigo where a Stony Brook-Southampon Hospital emergency annex is to be built are nearing completion. Grisch hopes to have season-opening ceremonies with a band and color guard there in mid-April.
Tim Garneau, who has been involved in the town’s Stephen Hand’s project, said that “both fields will be fitted with a pole-to-pole tension backstop netting system extending to a height of 25 feet above the field,” adding that “the new system offers engineering safety and uncompromised visibility for spectators.”
Grisch said that the umpiring situation remains iffy, , as was the case last year, and urged that those who know the rules, love the game, and want to serve the community make themselves known through the Little League website. Little League umpires, he added, are paid $90 per game.
East Hampton Little League evaluations are to be held at the Hub 44 complex off Tan Bark Trail on March 4 and 11. The newly-built Hub 44 building, where there are six pitching-hitting tunnels and HitTrax screens that record hitting and pitching statistics, has become a hive of activity. A dozen baseball and softball clinics for all ages are either underway or will be soon. All registrations are handled through the hub44rsf.com website.
Of particular note are baseball and softball pitching clinics for 7-through-12-year-olds to be given next month by Vinny Messana, who pitched Farmingdale State to two Skyline Conference championships and scouts for the San Diego Padres, and by Shannon Anderson Field, an East Hampton High School graduate.
Field’s softball pitching clinics are to be held at Hub 44 on March 2, 9, 16, and 23; Messana’s are to be held on March 7, 14, 21, and 28. Seven and 8-year-olds are to be taught from 4 to 5 p.m., 9 and 10-year-olds from 5 to 6, and 11 and 12-year-olds from 6 to 7. The fees for the four-week clinics are $200.