U.S. East champs have compiled lots of tourney experience

BANGOR – The U.S. East champions from Freehold Township, N.J., arrived at this year’s Senior League World Series with considerable name recognition.

The program is making its third appearance at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor in the last four years, having won the SLWS championship in 2004 and reaching the semifinals a year later before dropping a 4-3 decision to 2005 winner Urbandale, Iowa.

This year’s team, though it hasn’t won a title yet, boasts a series of considerable accomplishments in its own right.

Five members of the team played in the Mid-Atlantic regional of the Little League World Series as 12-year olds, and two years later Freehold Township advanced to the 2005 Junior League World Series at Taylor, Mich., where they went 1-2 in pool play.

“This team I have now has been together since they were about 9 years old going through the ranks,” said Freehold Township Senior League manager Anthony Cirillo. “We really set the tone when we were 12 by going to the regionals, and as we set that tone then you saw our older players do what we did [in Bangor] and they moved ahead and played very well also.”

The five Little League regional veterans -Steve Talbott, Shawn Purves, Dan Klinsky, Gerry Plescia and Anthony Cirillo, son of the manager – are now hoping to carve out their own niche in Senior League history.

“I think people compare us to the team that won it,” said the younger Cirillo after his team’s 4-1 victory over Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sunday. “When we were 12, five of us went to the regionals at Bristol, Connecticut, and then we went to the Junior League series.

“We’ve had a lot of success, but we’ve never won it, and now that a Freehold Township team has won it we’re always compared to them.”

Inevitably such comparisons produces added pressure that the team must overcome. Such was the case Sunday, when the underdog Vilnius, Lithuania, team stayed within striking distance throughout the game despite the fact Freehold Township put numerous runners in scoring position early in the contest.

“Today there was a little pressure at the beginning of the game,” said the younger Cirillo, a shortstop and leadoff hitter who had a key two-run double in the fifth inning to break the game open. “We found out we’ve just got to relax a little bit.”

Every pitch counts

The Senior League World Series is being conducted under a new pitch-count rule this year.

Under the rule, a Senior League pitcher can throw a maximum of 95 pitches a day.

If a pitcher throws 20 or fewer pitches one day, he can pitch the next day. If a pitcher throws between 21 and 45 pitches one day, he cannot pitch for one game and one day. If a pitcher throws more than 45 pitches, he must wait two days and a game before pitching again.

In previous years, pitchers weren’t held to a specific pitch count, but could throw a certain number of innings in a given number of days.

The strategic element of the new rule came into play in the opening game of this year’s SLWS, when Whalley Little League of Surrey, British Columbia, righthander Carson Nylund was pulled from the mound after five innings – and 45 pitches – of his team’s 10-2 victory over Maine District 3 champion Brewer.

That means Nylund is eligible to return to the mound after one day has elapsed and the team has played one game – in the Canadian champions’ case on Wednesday when they face the Saipan Little League of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Had the team been scheduled to play Monday he would have been eligible Tuesday, but the Canadian champions are idle Monday before facing U.S. West champion Hilo, Hawaii, Tuesday night.

Had Nylund thrown one more pitch and been at 46, the Surrey ace would not have been eligible to pitch again until the final day of pool play Thursday.

“Carson’s one of our best pitchers, and we just wanted to get him off the mound as quick as we could,” said Surrey manager Dennis Springenatic, “and he was under a 46-pitch count which means he can come back in a couple of days.

“We’ve got him fresh, and we used a couple of other guys to get them out on the mound and get their feet wet, so it worked out pretty well in our favor.”