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Team reunites to capture crown that eluded them

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The boys four years ago during their District 23 tournament run to qualify for the Little League World Series, which ultimately did not end in a trip to Williamsport.
The Greenwich Village Little League Under-16 Senior Tournament team after recently beating Inwood on the Village squad’s way to winning the District 23 Seniors title.
The Greenwich Village Little League Under-16 Senior Tournament team after recently beating Inwood on the Village squad’s way to winning the District 23 Seniors title.

The final at bat in the first game of the 2010 District 23 Little League World Series qualifier saw Greenwich Village lose to Peter Stuyvesant. A feeling of disbelief hung over the kids and their coaches.

Just the week before, the Village team — Andrew Ehrenberg, Eli Kimbell, Max Schneider, Jack Miller, Nick White, Julian Harris, Terrence Mallon, Elias Goodman, Harrison Rottman, Ben Crowson, Lucas Baez and Alec Morea — had destroyed P.S.L.L. They had been confident this would be their year.

Now, relegated to the losers’ bracket, the path was a daunting one. Win five games in a row and then play the team from the winner’s bracket, having to defeat them twice. Michael Buczek was that team and G.V.L.L. did win its next five games and the right to play them.

Game 1 was hard fought and G.V.L.L. came out on top. Unfortunately, not all stories have happy endings, and in this case, G.V.L.L. went down to defeat to Michael Buczek, the District 23 Champion.

Four years later and many battles against each other, has the clock ticking. Most of these boys are playing their last season ever in G.V.L.L. From T-ball through the Seniors Division, they have called G.V.L.L. their baseball home for more than 11 years. Now it is about to disappear.

And when these boys and their dad coaches reflected on it, most of the memories were of combatants, not teammates. One coach, however, didn’t want that to be the lasting memory. 

Most of these boys were already committed to playing travel baseball for the Gothams or to going to sleepaway camp. But the coach, Mike Schneider, set out to enter them into Little League’s Senior Division. The goal: To try and win the district championship that eluded them four years ago and to have their last memory of G.V.L.L. be of playing together.

With their star pitcher Andrew not available, Eli, Max, Harrison, Elias, Jack, Terrence, Nick, Julian and some new players — Brendan Rose, Morgan Shahi and Philippe Cox — took up the challenge.

The test was against Inwood and their dynamic hitting team in a best-of-three series for the district title.

Game 1 featured Eli on the mound, with Terrence in relief. Those two held Inwood to 2 runs in an 11-2 rout.

However, Game 2 figured to be much more challenging, in that Max, Andrew and Harrison were in camp or in tournaments. Recruits were brought in. Finn Laister Smith, Chris White, Ben Crowson, Jayson Camacho, and Trevor Lalumia provided the depth. In a seven-inning game that featured 26 men left on base, G.V.L.L. prevailed 4-3 to capture its first District 23 Seniors Title.

Due to prior commitments, Andrew, Eli, Max, Harrison, Julian, Jack and Terrence were not available for the boys’ next game against the champions of District 22. With seven of G.V.L.L.’s top nine players missing, the Village squad was a long shot to come out of this next series with the victory.

Monday night, they were knocked out of the sectionals by a tough Malveryn, L.I., team, after having lost on Sunday to Castle Hill, from the Bronx. Again, the first-stringers weren’t playing, plus G.V.L.L. was, on average, at least a year younger than its opponents. But that district banner and those memories will always be there. Mission accomplished.