The #1 seed Teaneck TBO 10U baseball team defeated #2 seed River Vale 4-3, to complete a perfect 10-0 season and win the Northeast Bergen All-Stars (NEBAS) National Division championship. While earning home field advantage, weather and field conditions forced Teaneck to travel to River Vale on Sunday morning for the rematch of their season opening 9-6 victory. Despite a challenging environment, Teaneck was still the home team with the last at bat, which would prove to be the difference maker in this one. To their credit, River Vale did bring the pomp and circumstance worthy of a championship game with pregame player introductions, the national anthem and a clear home field music and scoreboard operator advantage (more on that later…).
The game opened with sure-handed starting pitcher Avi Pasternak on the mound. After Pasternak fielded a ground ball to record the first out, River Vale jumped out with their bats to load the bases. Pasternak dug deep to show the resilience, grit and heart of this team to strike out the next two batters and keep River Vale scoreless. It was Teaneck’s turn to load the bases after a Shai Zaretsky single and two walks. Wilbur used a good eye at the plate to take a third walk and bring Zaretsky home to put Teaneck up 1-0 at the end of the first inning. Pasternak would repeat his ground ball fielding and two strikeout performance to start the second inning, but not before River Vale took advantage of a walk and stolen bases to knot the score at 1-1. After a quiet second inning at the plate, Teaneck fielders staved off a River Vale third inning attack with great fielding from shortstop Ezra Block, left fielder Aiden Merkin … and second baseman Elan Rabbani who seemingly recorded the third out, only to have the River Vale runner called safe to give them a 2-1 advantage. Pitcher David Siev wasn’t having it on his watch and recorded a strikeout to end the inning.
It was comeback time—a position this team hadn’t been in at all this season. Siev opened up the bottom of the third inning with a single. After stealing second base, Siev took advantage of a River Vale fielding error to sprint home and knot the score at 2-2. Teaneck would load the bases with one out with Nate Tenzer at the plate. On your home field, sometimes the advantage extends to controlling the count displayed on the scoreboard, even if it’s not correct and the umpire is not keeping accurate track. After Tenzer watched the fourth ball float across the plate to seemingly bring across Teaneck’s third run, despite coach and fan appeal, the umpire insisted the count was 3 and 2 as the incorrect scoreboard indicated and granted the River Vale pitcher a lifeline. River Vale would take advantage of this lifeline to strike out the next two batters and end Teaneck’s threat. River Vale would jump out to a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning with aggressive base running and stealing home plate. With closing pitcher Wilbur coming in, Teaneck and River Vale used great pitching and defense to arrive at the sixth and final inning with Teaneck down 3-2. Despite the tremendous emotion and frustration of Teaneck’s players, coaches and fans … don’t forget this team’s resilience, grit, and heart.
With Wilbur on the mound to start the sixth inning, the Teaneck pitching and defense that was a hallmark of this team was locked in. With a River Vale runner taking a lead off of first base, second baseman Rabbani caught a pop fly ball and alertly threw the ball to first baseman Merkin to record the double play. Wilbur struck out the final River Vale batter to bring up the top of the order in Teaneck’s final at bat. The stage was set for an epic ending, and these boys would not disappoint.
With rally caps on and two outs remaining in Teaneck’s season, Merkin started the rally with a fly ball single and then stole second and third base to put the tying run 60 feet away. Zaretsky followed up with a hard ground ball RBI single to bring Merkin home and tie the score 3-3. Enter Wilbur, the team’s batting leader throughout the season. With Zaretsky advancing to second base on a stolen base, the count was 3 and 1. Wilbur knew this was his moment and he crushed a monstrous shot to the center field fence to bring Zaretsky home with the championship winning run! As Wilbur rounded second base and threw his helmet in the air, the team and coaches poured out of the dugout to meet him in celebration!
As the team collected the NEBAS National Division 10U championship team and individual trophies, the smiles were bigger than ever! The Teaneck contingent was over 75 people strong, and the emotions of frustration had faded away to the emotions of excitement, joy, love and support that the team, coaches, family members and fans had developed through this journey. This team of 14 boys—Gideon Apter, Caleb Block, Ezra Block, Benjamin Chetrit, Nathan Demby, Aiden Merkin, Avi Pasternak, Elan Rabbani, Noam Rabbani, David Siev, Nate Tenzer, David Wilbur, Gavi Yaros and Shai Zaretsky—each contributed to this unbelievable season and showed the resilience, grit and heart of a champion. Coaches Shlomo Yaros, Benjo Wilbur, Yigael Chetrit, Noam Block and I are so proud of what these boys have accomplished and look forward to the team’s installation on TBO’s clubhouse wall where they will be remembered forever.
By Coach Jason Demby
