The players are from each of the Deerfield Valley towns that had been competing during the spring baseball season and were united as one team to represent the Deerfield Valley in the district competition.
The team members are Eric Bolognani, Joshua Carpenter O’Hearn, Corey Donnelly, Tate Falvey, Alexander Gamache, Dylan Howe, Boone Jones, Dylan King, Andrei Lynch, James McGovern, Lucas Messing, Gunnar Nilsen, Joe Rafus, Hayden Reed, and Christopher Sullivan. The team is coached by Robert Bolognani, Dave Messing, and Tim Rafus, all Cal Ripken-certified coaches.
The Wolves faced a tough top-seeded team from the north, Connecticut Valley, and played in what was their first game together as a team.
After falling short of victory in this first game, the Wolves won the next two games, played on June 30. The games were highlighted by pitching duels between the teams and there was no shortage of hits and nail-biting fielding.
On Sunday, July 1, the Wolves faced their first round rivals again and their result showed such a significant upswing in their performance that the opposing coaches commented that the Wolves pushed their team much harder, and played strong “team baseball.”
With that performance, the Wolves placed third overall in their first tournament as a team.
Wolves manager Robert Bolognani summarized the first team outing: “ We played better and better in each round of the tournament. The Wolves had only four practices together prior to their first game and they played against some very high quality teams. We are proud of each member of our team; they played hard competitive baseball and their sportsmanship matched their skills.”
The Wolves will continue to play throughout the summer Cal Ripken season in tournaments in Massachusetts and Vermont.
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