From the Trentonian

Everyone a winner in this game

GEORGE O’GORMAN , Staff Writer 08/24/2004

TRENTON -- Of all the happy times Chris English enjoyed during the 2004 baseball season his happiest moments may have come from a game his team didn’t win.

But who’s complaining?

For English and the other 15- and 16-year-old Babe Ruth League all-stars who got to play at Waterfront Park last night in the annual District One All-Star Game, it didn’t matter who won or lost, but just that they played in the game.

"This was a fun game. A game when it didn’t matter who won or lost just that we were out here playing and having a lot of fun," said English, an all-star from the 15-year-old district champion Nottingham team who got to play on the big stage at the home of the Trenton Thunder with family and friends savoring the moment as well.

For the record the 16-year-old all-stars from the Mercer Senior Babe Ruth League won this sixth annual meeting, 12-3. And for the record the game wasn’t completed as the umpires finally had to put an end to all the fun in the top of the ninth when darkness made it unsafe to play and the lights had not been reserved for use.

No one seemed to mind since by then there had been enough memorable fielding plays and so many solid hits for the parents to fill a highlight film.

This game is traditionally the close of the District One Babe Ruth League season, bringing together two dozen players who had excelled in the 15-year-old tourney earlier in the summer and the best of the 16-year-old class from Mercer’s Senior BRL.

The 16s made quick work of this one, breaking it open with a four-run second to go ahead 6-2. It never got closer.

In that second inning, Dan Krysa got the first of his two hits and scored the second of his four runs, smacking an RBI single.

It was one of five hits the 16s got off pitcher Ray Bokofsky.

John Petrucelli and Krysa had two of the RBI hits, two more got home on groundouts by Keyron Jones and Kyle Kaminaskas, and a fifth on Bill Picatagi’s sac fly.

Soon after the players on the field were hoping to come away with a memorable moment from their first game at Waterfront Park while teammates anxiously awaited their big moment.

When English’s came, he drove a pitch deep to the right-field corner for a two-out RBI triple.

It did not seem to matter that the run he drove in only cut his team’s deficit to 9-3.

"What an experience it was," English would say later. "It was everything I hoped it would be.

"I wanted to get a chance to step in that batter’s box, hit the ball as hard as I could and run the bases. I did all of it," smiled English.

"I was hoping to get a hit and I got a triple, so that was an extra bonus."

English, like a lot of the boys who played in last night’s game, will be back at the big park along the river soon once their high school careers get going.

He was one of four stars off the Nottingham 15-year-old team that went unbeaten in the District One series, followed it with a win in the Southern N.J. state tourney and went to the Middle-Atlantic Regional before their bid for a trip to the World Series ended.

It seemed even with all that success what happened last night at Waterfront Park was icing on the cake.

Winning or losing didn’t seem to matter to these all-stars.

It was a moment they had waited forall summer and nothing was going to spoil it -- even darkness.