Local tykes based at 18th and Johnston finished first year of competitive ball with two tournament titles.
Eight of the 12 sluggers who made up this year’s Delaware Valley Senators show their megawatt smiles after practicing at Barry Playground.
Conventional wisdom states good things come to those who wait. This year’s Delaware Valley Senators proved that prosperity can likewise visit those whom fate has not given a lengthy delay. The team’s 7- and 8-year-olds began what they hope will be a prolonged relationship with success, capturing a pair of tournament crowns and finishing as runners-up in their 12-team league.
Together since December, the squad conducted scrimmages in March, with competition beginning a month later. From April through July, its dozen members, who play their home games at Barry Playground, 18th and Johnston streets, compiled a 39-6 mark.
With one exception, the boys reside in South Philadelphia, and most call the Whitman section home. Coach Ken Bergmann, a Whitman resident, constructed the team mostly through word of mouth and enlisted Neumann-Goretti coach Lou Spadaccini to assist in preparing the youngsters for their first taste of fast-pitch competition.
“There was an application fee for registering a team, and parents raised the money,” Bergmann said of lumping his unit, which included his 8-year-old son Deen, into a league that contained a Port Richmond team, as well as representatives from Delaware County and New Jersey. “All of the guys came right from a T-ball league and were looking to emulate their older brothers and cousins[on the 10- and 12-year-old teams].”
When winter practices near Neumann-Goretti’s field at 26th and Moore streets yielded to live contests, Bergmann and Spadaccini’s troops began a journey that could lead to district play and a shot at the Little League World Series.
“As the season approached, we expected to compete and just have fun, but the kids had something else in mind,” Spadaccini, whose 7-year-old son Nicky offered his talents to the team, said.
That “something else” included a march through the Tri-State Elite League — based out of Sewell, N.J. — and distinction as champions of the Memorial Day Voorhees Tournament and July’s Drexel Hill Tournament.
“Winning Drexel Hill is definitely our biggest accomplishment so far,” Bergmann said earlier this month as the team enjoyed a light practice. “We want to think this is only the beginning. At 10, they can start competing in districts, and two years later they could be in Williamsport for the Series.”
IF THE BOYS, who all play multiple positions, need to make the 180-mile trek to the site of the Little League World Series, they will simply be continuing an established life of travel. They have made numerous trips to Delaware County and South Jersey, locations where they have formed strong rivalries, and a stop in Allentown.
“With travel, we often have 14-hour days,” Bergmann noted.
Such durations have only intensified the bonds that the boys have started at school and on the field.
“I love the travel,” 8-year-old Gaetan Grandelli, of Front and Ritner streets, said. “Allentown was really fun.”
Grandelli has a brother on a 12-year-old team and aspires to be like him.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Bergmann said. “These guys think the 12-year-olds are gods.”
With their success, perhaps the younger brothers could be minor deities.
“I’ve coached and played a long time around here, and I’ve never been around kids like these, who truly epitomize what South Philly is all about,” Lou Spadaccini said.
“We all work hard together,” Nicky Spadaccini, of the 2600 block of South Iseminger Street, added. “We’re like brothers.”
The younger Spadaccini’s attitude has infected the team so much that every member expects to return next year. For 7-year old Gavin Verbitski, being back will mean continuing to improve his reactions to live pitching.
“I like hitting normal pitches more than hitting off a tee,” the resident of Front and Jackson streets said.
A lesson in Lou-mility Although his last name sounds as if it could be a pasta, Lou Spadaccini is not as pliable as the doughy dish. Following a horrendous 3-18 2007 campaign as Neumann-Goretti’s baseball coach, he could have succumbed to the naysayers who saw his squad as a perpetual also-ran.
Lou Spadaccini has a tough time picturing what life is going to be like without Al Baur, Mark Donato and Michael Riverso in his lineup.
This year, success clung to the Delaware Valley 12-and-under Senators like kindergartners to parents on the first day of school. Over a seven-month span, the youngsters collected 51 wins in 63 games, competed against teams from eight states and collected four tournament titles.
If the baseball players at Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., ever grow tired of wearing cleats, their institution’s track and field team would surely offer them a chance to don different footwear. Seeking to win their second Catholic League championship in three years, the East Passyunk athletes have made jaunts to home plate constants this season. The offensive juggernauts showed Wyncote’s Bishop McDevitt no mercy last week, taking two games by identical 12-0 scores.
The head coach of the Ss. Neumann-Goretti baseball team was arrested for allegedly supplying a minor with alcohol Monday and put behind bars the following night for an allegation of sexual abuse.
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1. dino said... on Aug 26, 2010 at 02:40PM
“it would be so nice to see the names of these kids-they would really feel honored to see that recognition”
2. stephanie said... on Aug 27, 2010 at 05:38PM
“Too cute!”