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Brookfield Bandits Display Team Confidence Over Memorial Day Weekend

Bandits U10 Baseball Makes Semi-Finals in Memorial Weekend Tourney in North Branford

The Brookfield Bandits 10U Travel Baseball team continued their Spring success this past weekend, playing through to the semifinals in the Triple Crown Series "12th Annual Memorial Day Shootout" in North Branford, CT.

The Bandits kicked off the tournament with a game against the CT Capitals under the lights at the Sportsplex in North Branford.  The Bandits were handed a tough loss 15-14 due to the time limit rule being evoked in this offensive battle.  The Bandits gave up 8 runs in the first inning to the Capitals, who hail from East Hartford.  That said, the Bandits never let up and pulled back into the lead with offensive fundamental execution by Lucas "Rocket" Joshi and monstrous hitting from Niko 'Slim Shady' Droukas, Mason 'Matsui' Blanchette and Chris 'Yah -Yah' Demarco.

Saturday brought a contest against the Hoptown Shamrocks from Hopkinton, MA.  The Bandits came out blazing behind the pitching of Connor "C-Money" Gruda and David 'Davio' Albanese. The Bandits' bats continued to be on fire with exceptional hitting from Cameron 'Big Dog' Gleichauf, Andrew 'Taz' Almeida and constant persistence from the remaining Bandits, including the Bandits dedicated Bat Boy Zak "Z" Droukas. When the dust settled, the Bandits came out on with a splendid 12-1 decision.  The win afforded the Bandits a 7th seed in the 16-team tournament and the ability to advance on Sunday.

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The Bandits' next game pitted them against the Trumbull Titans.  The Bandits dispatched the Titans 12-3 behind the joint effort of pitching from Alex 'AJ' Johanesen and Brendan 'Scrapper' Leslie, and a balanced offensive attack that included 11 hits and a number of RBIs in four innings.

After a seven-hour delay and various scheduling issues by the tournament, the Bandits were left playing the late game on Sunday against the CT Nationals from Waterford, CT. The Bandits exploded for five quick runs in the top of the first inning behind a torrent of hitting from the entire Bandits line-up. The game turned into an offensive display as both teams utilized timely hitting to seesaw the lead from each other until Alex Johanesen came into to pitch and put together a superior performance to close it out and get the win.  The Bandits offense got timely run support in the bottom of the fifth with a leadoff single by Brendan Leslie and then fence rattling back-to-back doubles by Niko Droukas and Alex Johanesen to tie the game.  With two out and the go-ahead run standing on third, Chris Demarco hit a laser to right, scoring a run that would ultimately be the game winner. The entire day demonstrated strong catching and timely hitting from John 'JJ' Garizio and a game saving catch in the outfield gap by Nick 'Poison' Ivey.

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The team finished on top 11-10 earning a spot in the semifinals on Monday morning.

Suffering from the extreme weekend heat and the late day scheduling blunder on Sunday, the team had difficulty getting their game on track Monday against the Stealth 10U team from Hamden.  The Stealth jumped out early and never looked back.  The Bandits kept battling but lost to the eventual tournament champions in this semifinal match up.

The Bandits go back to playing by Cal Ripken Rules as they enter the Bethel Jimmy Fund Tournament to defend their 2009 title.  Come on down and WOOT-WOOT for the Bandits starting June 7, at 5:45 p.m. in Bethel.

The coaching staff is proud of all the Bandits and applauds their commitment and dedication during this past weekend and throughout this year's campaign so far.  They continue to grow together as a team and are a great group of young men.   Additionally, the boys couldn't do this without the tremendous dedication of their families – parents and siblings were all on hand to support the boys and it was greatly appreciated.

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