L.E.S. Gauchos ride rough over the competition

The Ponce team, the reigning Felix Millan League champions, with manager and league commissioner Manny Rodriguez, front row, second from right, at Murry Bergtraum Field by the Manhattan Bridge.

The Lower East Side Gauchos baseball team is continuing its winning ways. The Gauchos are now 9-2 in the RBI League and 8-1 in the 16-and-under Felix Millan League — even though the Gauchos don’t have a player over age 14. Last Saturday, the Gauchos beat Ponce, the reigning Millan champs for the last three years in a row, 12-3. The Gauchos are also 3-0 in the 14-and-under Felix Millan League, with two no-hitters. Next month, the Gauchos head to Kentucky where they will play in two tournaments, one for 14-year-old players, the other for 15-year-old players. Said David McWater, chairperson of Community Board 3, who manages the team, “I honestly believe we’re the best 14-and-under team in all of Manhattan — if not the city.” An all-star Felix Millan team, on which the Gauchos fielded six players, was knocked out of the national Little League tournament. Maybe if the team had been all Gauchos, though….