Colts Neck all-stars are perfect in District 19
13-year-olds win Little League pennant
BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

This year the new Little League pitch-count rules came into effect for the postseason tournaments for the first time.

It would be a preoccupation for managers as they struggled with how long to go with a starter and who they should bring in to replace him.

One manager who didn't have to worry about pitch counts was the manager of Colts Neck Little League's 13-year-old All-Star team, Larry Spallanzani, and it's the reason his team won the District 19 championship. They beat Freehold Township, 12-8, in the final played at the Marlboro Little League Complex.

"The game is all about pitching, and we had it," he said. "We had five pitchers we could use."

According to the pitch-count rules, if a pitcher threw 18 or fewer pitches in a game, they could pitch every day. If they threw 18-41 pitches, they had to take a day off and anything over 41 (but no more than 95), it would be two days of rest before they could appear on the mound again.

Colts Neck had two quality starters in Frank Vitarelli and Alec Wagstaff. Lined up behind them in relief were equally talented pitchers in Joseph Kelly, Mark Yutko and Sean Blass (the team's only lefty). Spallanzani knew whomever he gave the ball to could do the job. That's whey his club went through the district tournament with a perfect 4-0 record.

Starters Vitarelli and Wagstaff are both hard throwers who were at the same time very crafty. They weren't just throwers, but pitchers.

With pitching goes defense.

"Our defense played really well," noted Spallanzani. "I don't think we made two errors the entire tournament. We had a lot of speed in the outfield."

Center fielder Greg Golden led an outfield defense that chased down many a would-be extra base hit, saving runs. Faton Bauta, Kevin Baker and Joseph Bongiorno flanked him.

Bongiorno and Lawrence Spallanzani shared time (along with Vitarelli) behind the plate. Colts Neck's defense was very strong up the middle and it started with its catcher.

Blass and Kelly rotated at first base for Colts Neck with Spallanzani and Robert Mulvihill at second. When not pitching, Wagstaff and Vitarelli were the shortstops, and the hot corner was shared by Wagstaff, Kelly and Yutko.

Like the pitching staff, it mattered little who played where. With their versatility, Colts Neck could put its players at any position and be assured there would be no weak link.

When it came to scoring runs, Wagstaff was Colts Neck's spark. He was the lead-off hitter and one thing that he knew more than anything else was how to get on base. With his speed, he turned walks or singles into doubles by stealing second base. Colts Neck jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning of every game because of him.

It was Golden, Bauta and Mulvihill who drove in the runs. The bat control of Bongiorno, whose sacrifice bunts put runners in scoring position, helped set the table as well.

The extra power came from Vitarelli, Golden and Bauta.

Colts Neck beat Marlboro North (4-2), Marlboro South (7-4) and Middletown (10-0) to advance to the district final where they played Freehold Township. The final was a seesaw affair with the teams trading leads. Colts Neck came out of top, 12-8.

"This was a total team effort and the boys deserve all of the credit as they are a very solid group," said manager Spallanzani.

In addition to the above mentioned players on the team, Spallanzani's coaching staff included Joe Kelly and Bob Bongiorno.