Shrub Oak Takes Title
The below was submitted by Shrub Oak coach Ray Glashoff. We thank him for the below submission and congratulate him and his team on its championship effort:
The Shrub Oak Jr. American Legion Baseball Team traveled to Utica, NY looking to capture the New York State Championship. They needed to defeat Utica American Legion in a best of 3 series.
Shrub Oak won the first game behind the shut out performance from Hunter Glashoff (Hen Hud) by the score of 7-0. Glashoff tossed a 5 hitter while striking out 7 batters. Leading the charge on offense was Tim McCauley (Panas) with a 3 hit game and 2 rbi’s. Scott Russo (Yorktown) and Russ Mlynar (Panas) each chipped in with 2 hits with one of Mylnar’s being a double. Joe Petropoalo (Yorktown) also had a run scoring double. The winners banged out 11 hits.
The second game saw Carson Cole (Hen Hud) tossing a 2-hitter as Shrub Oak went on to win the championship by a 11-1 score. Cole was in complete command throughout the game as he recorded 5 strike outs.
Chris Conklin (Lakeland) had a big day at the plate with a couple of hits including a run scoring triple. Petropoalo had 2 hits and 3 rbi’s. McCauley and Cole each had two hits on the day. Brian Holderman (Panas) had a couple of hits but more importantly handled the pitching staff superbly.
Shrub Oak ended the season with a 31-9 record winning 2 tournaments and their league. Team members included: Hunter Glashoff, Carson Cole and Peter Pinque from Hen Hud; Russ Mlynar, Tim McCauley and Brian Holderman from Panas; Tom Shofi and Rich Monahan from Carmel; Scott Russo, Jay Salvatierre and Joe Petropoalo from Yorktown; Chris Conklin and John White from Lakeland; Mike Mclynn from Westlake; John Picone from Iona Prep and Jesse Martin from Fordham Prep. Team bat boy was Danny Monahan from Carmel.
Season Overview
Shrub Oak first opened the season with a 1-4 record losing 3 games in the Joe Graci Sr. American Legion Tournament in early June. The next tournament was the Artie Paisano Tournament in Rockland County where they posted a perfect 6-0 record. Russo came home with MVP honors with his hot hitting.
Shrub Oak then traveled to Saratoga New York where they won 2 games and lost 2 games.
Their next stop was the Firecracker Tournament in Providence Rhode Island where they went 4-0 in their bracket but did not advance to championship round due the runs allowed tie breaker. Highlights of this tournament was the opening game win over Warwick of Rhode Island where Glashoff took a no-hitter into the 7th inning before giving up an infield hit.
The second game of the tournament saw Holderman’s walk off double in the 8th win it for Shrub Oak.
The team came home to participate in the Don Becker Tournament in Newburgh where Shrub Oak went 5-1 and taking home the Championship Trophy. Mlynar had the hot bat and took the MVP honors home with him. In the semi-final game against Lloyd American Legion, Cole had a no hit bid broken in the 8th inning. Shrub Oak won the game on Holderman’s winning single in the 9th.
The next set of games finished out the league schedule where they ended coming in first place. They traveled to Middletown for the league (District) playoffs where they won 3 games and loss 1 in a double elimination format. The first game was against Newburgh where Glashoff pitched a 9-1 win. Cole was the hard luck pitcher against Middletown in a 5-1 loss.
The next day saw what the team was made of as they went on to beat Middletown in 2 straight games. The first game saw Martin pitch a gem as they won 6-3 pitching all 9 innings. The final game was a slugfest as Shrub Oak came out on top with a 14-11 win. The big hit of the game came in the top of the 7th as McCaulie knocked in 2 runs with a single down the left field line.
The team now had to travel to Albany for the Zone Regional Playoffs. They opened with a win over Saratoga with a 10-7 score. Russo led with a home run.
The next game was against the host Blanchard Albany Team and they came away with a 6-3 win. All the runs came in the 5th inning as Russo led with a 3 hit game.
Albany fought their way back from the loser’s bracket to face Shrub Oak in the Championship. Shrub Oak put on a hitting show as they pounded out a season high 18 hits and winning the championship by the score of 11-2.
Martin earned the win by allowing 2 runs on 6 hits. Leading the offense was Pinque (catcher) with a 4 for 4 day including 3 doubles and 4 rbi’s. Conklin and Russo had a big day with 3 hits each.
Monahan played a big part in all 3 wins as he picked up saves in the first 2 games had a couple of hits and rbi’s in the final.
