NYS crowns three baseball champions, navigates rainy weekend

The seniors' division Hawks, majors' Giants and AAA's Cannon Ballers all took home the gold in the 2021 Niwot Youth Sports recreation baseball playoffs.

Led by coaches Ben Bernstein, Mike Curtin and Scott Francis, the 4-8 Hawks upset the 10-2 Falcons in the championship game on June 26. The contest stretched to extra innings and the Hawks won on a walk-off bunt.

"It was a wonderful seesaw game," said NYS baseball director Galen Scheidenhelm. "Both teams battled hard and the Hawks were able to close it out in the end."

Eleven Hawks players could call themselves the best in the 13 to 15-year-old senior division: Chase Mason, Chayse Rawsky, Christian Mendoza, Cole Francis, Graham Bernstein, Gustave Kuhlman, James O'Hara, Kieran Curtin, Landon Vela, Max Eiseman and Tylen Stafford.

In the 11 and 12-year-old majors division, the 7-2 Giants took down the 9-2 Rockies. Because of a rainstorm on June 26, the game was pushed to the following day. Scheidenhelm said it was no easy effort to get the Biff Warren Baseball Complex fields, located off Nimbus Road, ready to play.

"We had volunteers, led by our Seniors Commissioner Ben Bernstein, at the field until almost 9 o'clock last night (June 26) literally bailing water out of the infield," Scheidenhelm said. "We had a small army of volunteers meet up this morning (June 27) at 6:45 (a.m.) to do whatever it took to get the fields ready for these kids to play."

Scheidenhelm said the hard work put in by the volunteers combined with community spirit made the season a "smashing success."

The Giants, coached by Jon Zeljo, Luke Simon and Zac Sackrison, embraced the dry field to take down the Rockies, 9-5. Colin Perry, Cooper Gordon, Diego Orona, Evan Casas, Fernando Swanson, Gappo Zeljo, Gianni Zeljo, Jordan Gardner, Leo Kubik, Lucas White, Owen Simon, Rowan Sackrison and Toben Dolenc made up the Giants' roster.

As for the nine and 10-year-old AAA division, the Scheidenhelm-coached Trash Pandas topped the regular season standings at 10-2. But it was the 6-6 Cannon Ballers who beat the 6-6 River Bandits by a score of 8-1 in the title game on June 27. The Cannon Ballers worked themselves up from the losers' bracket to beat the River Bandits twice in the double-elimination tournament.

Adam Gold, Ben Vaughan, Brody Birmingham, Bryce Rose, Carter Pensy, Casen Spencer, Clive Buehler, Cody Harrold, Gabriel Simon, Gil Gilmore, Hudson Doolittle and Kolton Wolcheck made up the Cannon Ballers' roster. Their coaches were Ryan Pensy, Mark Doolittle and Mitch Rose.

Scheidenhelm said that NYS baseball had just under 350 youngsters participate this year. Following a year drastically impacted by COVID-19, Scheidenhelm said that one of his goals was to provide a "sense of normalcy" for his players. In addition, providing a competitive but ultimately developmental experience is key for the league, he said.

NYS plans to organize a "sandlot" style fall baseball league for the AAA players and possibly the majors group as well.