Mid-Hudson Tigers 10U team wins first-ever travel title – Daily Freeman

GEORGETOWN, Del. — The Mid-Hudson Tigers 10U baseball team claimed its first travel championship by capturing the Bronx Cheer Bash Championship on Sunday with a 14-5 win over the Poughkeepsie Lightning.

Key pitching performances and some timely hitting by Carter Ricketson, Paulie Tiberia, Jesse Schoonmaker and Greyson Williams led the locals in their title run. Ricketson and Tiberia rapped out nine hits each in the tournament, while Schoonmaker and Williams collected eight apiece.

The Mid-Hudson Tigers traveled over 200 miles to face the Poughkeepsie Lightning twice in the event. The Tigers had dropped four of five to Poughkeepsie prior to the tournament, with the Lightning’s victories all by one run.

The “Bronx Cheer Bash” started in similar fashion. After the Tigers jumped out to a 5-3 lead, Poughkeepsie rallied in the bottom of the sixth inning for three runs to post a 6-5 opening-round win.

The Tigers bounced back behind Trent Moye’s solid pitching performance and red-hot bats to score an 18-1 win over the Tri-State Arsenal Prime. The fourth game of the tournament was a must-win after losing the third game. Tiberia led the way to a 4-0 victory over the Hauppauge Eagles from Long Island, belting a three-run
homer and pitching a complete-game shutout with eight strikeouts.

In the semifinal contest, the Tigers avenged a loss to the Avengers 10U from Pennsylvania with a 4-2 win behind Schoonmaker’s complete-game three-hitter. He struck out nine.

The championship game on Sunday featured a rematch between the two Hudson Valley rivals. The Tigers jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the top of the first against Poughkeepsie and cruised to the easy 14-5 win.

Williams was named the game’s most valuable player after belting three home runs. The Tigers totaled 14 hits and got a solid relief effort from Hunter Palazzolo. Other members of the Mid-Hudson Tigers were Carter
Boughton, Nick Welch, Isaac Miller, Cam Wade, Mason Deibert, Ryan Simon and Rylan Simmons.

Scott Ricketson was the head coach of the Mid-Hudson Tigers and he was assisted by Dan Schoonmaker, Ryan Deibert and Ryan Simon Sr.

Although the Tigers scored a lot of runs, Ricketson said the team’s pitching is what made the difference in winning the title.

“Our pitching depth is much deeper than most teams and it showed Sunday,” the head coach said. “We allowed the fewest runs in the tournament while also probably having the most players take the mound. This is extremely important because our kids are 10 and their arms are still developing.”

Ricketson said the Tigers deserve a lot of credit for hanging together after some tough setbacks during the season.

“The thing that stands out about this team is their perseverance throughout the year,” Ricketson said. “We came close a couple different times in league and tournament play, but finished with heart-breaking endings. We held out hope and believed in what we were doing and it paid off in the end.”