Battle at the Border kicks off today
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- June
- 19
In just its third year the Battle at the Border has more than tripled in size since its inception. The field has doubled since just last year, meaning 24 top programs from the northeast will clash beginning this afternoon in what has quickly become one of the region’s top events.
If you want to check out today’s story you can read it here, or for tournament locations, directions, participants and/or schedules, log on to the tournament’s website here.
Games begin today at 4:30 at eight different locations and continue through Sunday afternoon.
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 11:48 am by Josh Thomson. 
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Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in
March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of
2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has
since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting,
Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his
fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning
fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and
insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh
graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University,
where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in
history. 
Jake Thomases has covered baseball, hockey, girls basketball, and girls soccer for the Journal News since arriving in 2003. He previously interned at The Poughkeepsie Journal while attending Vassar College. He is socking money away under his mattress to buy the Knicks, at which time he will trade Jerome James to Cleveland for a ham sandwich.
I am really excited to see the clippers national team this weekend, most of the best juniors in the section are on this team.
Cant wait for this show the NY9 Scout team is gonna put on like last year…..
They hit 7 home runs in 1 game last year! by 7 different players. They are the team to beat, and team to watch for this weekend’s tournament.
Tons of tallent in Westchester this weekend:
Ct Bombers 18u
Tom Lawrence- upper 80s-90 committed to Winthrop
Rob Blanc- Franklin Pierce
New Jersey Twins American
Eric Stevens- upper 80’s- 90, good breaker, cimmitted to BC
Jordan Tabakman- 86-88 and projects, committed to UNC
Andrew Sullivan- 86-87, good mechanics, some projection
Charlie Lasky- velocity goes up and down but has been up to 88
Zachary Passerelle- great arm behind the dish and nice swing
NY9 Showcase
Mike Antonio- slick fielder good arm and quick bat
Mike Rosenfeld- good arm and serious power with the bat
Zack Tax- 85-86 from akward angle
RICHMOND COUNTY BASEBALL 18U NATIONALS
John Franco Jr.- John Frano’s sun, good glove and bat speed
Jimmy Brennan- 45th round but will go to St. Jhon’s, good wheels, got in CF and can really hit
Taconic Rangers American
Joe Arena- 2011 lefty with low 80’s heater projects
John DeMarte- 2010 around 85 projects
Stephen Green- electric upper 80’s, committed to BC
Jared Hirschberg- mid 80’s
Team Connecticut Americans
Devin Burke- 90-92 committed to Duke
Stephen Catalina- UConn
Alan Filauro- cannon from behind the plate and solid bat Guilford Tech CC
Tim Kiene- little long with swing but light tower power
Ray Maggi- great speed and baserunner good range in outfield, solid hitting tools committed to Monmouth
LJ Mazzilli- all about the bat and can pick it committed to UConn
Greg Miller- Tulane
Ryan Moore- 2-way guy, can run, hit and upper 80’s on mound, committed to UConn
Adam Zabel- Tulane
Scott Kelleher- Lafayette
Chris Kono- Holy Cross
Alan Pastyrnak- Northeastern
Loius Ricci- John’s Hopkins
World Yacht Clippers American
David Wood- can fly and play the D, good bat speed committed to Elon
Steven Roche- Low 90’s, heavy, committed to High Point
Mike Mercurio- solid all around, can run field and hit committed to High Point
Nick McBride- tall, lanky easy upper 80’s-90, committed to ECU
Tyler Donovan- great devensive tools, great arm, committed to Winthrop
World Yacht Clippers National
Ryan Pennell- 86-88 toutch 90 sharp curveball
Josy Espinal- hose from the outfield, good range, solid hitting tools
Great job by that NY9 team last year. A bunch of returning college players in a tournament with 16, 17 year olds. BTW the Barklay kid turned 20/
this tournament does not even come close to host the best juniors in the section, in fact most of the good talent is from the senior class that just graduated….
hey umm can i say atta boy. the skill levels the low hud scout talks about iwth these players is wrong and same with the ages… way to do ur homework
Weather permitting this is the schedule for Sunday
Playoff Schedule
Blind Brook High School
9am – Team Connecticut American
Vs. Stamford Cards
11:30am – Taconic Rangers
American Vs. Long Island Titans Gold
Rec Park
9am – NJ Twins American Vs.
Connecticut Bombers 18u
11:30am – World Yacht Clippers
American Vs New York Nine Scout
Semi Finals at 2pm
Championship 4:30 at Rec Park
Consolation Games
Cubetta Stadium
9am
Stamford Jays Vs.
Ct Bombers 16u
11:15am
Mizuno Titans Vs
WY Clippers Nat
1:30pm
Team Ct Nat Vs
Farrahs
Port Chester High School
9am
New Rochelle Vs Taconic
National
11:15
Bayside Yankees Vs.
Ny Nine Showcase
Port Chester Middle School
11:15
NJ Twins B Vs
CT Bombers 17u
the two clippers mentioned above Pennell – big lefty saw for the first time on sat. and Espinal of Beacon in center are top prospects. I was able to see the national team for one and a half games and they do have some talent on the team, but were losing the second game with some porous defense mainly in the middle infield. i counted maybe 8-9 scouts at the games , they also might have been there to witness the team from jersey that beat them in the second game. They had some good players . some otehr kids that stood out were the Clipper lefty right fielder, I do not know his name, who hit a shot up the hill over the trees that hit a house across the street, and the big first baseman. The kid must be 6’5” at least. Moran the 3B looks like a good player some size and a good bat. The team has some talent. The pitching in game 2 for them was so so, issued too many walks, and like I said, poor infield defense hurt them. Good team though…
the clipper national team is the money maker for the organization…basically, if you are above average and can write the check you make the team…last year, the clipper national team was horrendous and could be beaten and was by any above average 17u team….....just the facts..
Truth, your a joke. First read the above post about the team and some of the names mentioned. Then, Take 2 minutes and look at the rosters of the National and American teams. The American team is all Seniors while the National Team is all Jr’s. The National team has Pennell, Moran, Olesczuk, Pilla, Erker, Tandy, Espinal, Lang, Rojas, Serio, Geiner, Sullivan… I think you are grossly mistaken with the National Team. There must be at least 8-10 All-Section players on that team. Every time that team played this weekend the scouts were all over them.
The New York Nine Scout team won the tournament, going 6-0 in the tournament and giving up only 7 runs in 6 games. The tournament officials shortened the games today to try to get the game in, making every game today only 4 innings. The Nine threw 3 arms today, a LHP from JJ-EF who sat at around 86, 87 mph. Two RHP, one from NJ who touched 93 according to a few of the coaches in attendance and one from the city who I didn’t get a reading on, but I would guess he was touching 90 Impressive team.
what locals were on what teams
The Clippers National team was a team that people went to when they didn’t make other prolific organizations in the area. If you showed up to one try-out and were on a varsity team, whether as a bench player or a 9 hitter on a bad team, you could just pay them $3000 and you were definitely assigned a spot on the team. You actually think 10 players on that team are All-Section, please look up most of the players statistics from varsity baseball and you would find T.J. Olesczuk, Mike Tandy, Josey Espinal, and maybe a few others with All-Section numbers.
You stand corrected and then start writing again to futher make an ass of yourself. You name 3 then leave off Pennell, Colin Moran (ALL CHSAA), Brian Sullivan, John Melville (Section2), Matt Phillips (MVP -defense), John Pilla, Mike Lang (injured but he was the one who hit the shot talked about above. They play baseball outside your little corner of Westchester.
You said “there must be at least 8-10 All-Section players on the team”. I count about 4? There is quite a difference between 10 and 4 players don’t ya think…...Do not be so defensive when you grossly exaggerate and then get called out to tell the truth…
Weel I guess we won’t know until we see who makes it next year. It said all section dude but it didn’t say this year. how many other teams have that many all section juniors on it. in fact, how many juniors made all section. don’t talk trash to discredit a team or its players when you won’t put your name to it. who ya play for?? yo mama
That is a much better honest answer from a self-promoting braggart…Next year the Clipper Nationals will have 8-10 All-Section players, in your learned, unbiased opinion. But you agree, that this year they have only 3…. And that is an undisputable FACT.
Before you start talking smack about other people’s “mamas”, learn to tell the truth you low life worm.
Just to put it to rest for you guys. There were a toatal of 4 All-Section players, 1 of them being from another Section in NY and 1 All CHSAA player and 1 Honerable Mention All-Section player
Either way there are some real quality guys who have good futures ahead and will be impact players for their HS teams next year. There are some pretty good young arms in the area that will show next season but already opened the eyes of some coaches and scouts this past weekend.
The game with the NY9 on Sunday had quite a few All_Section guys and guys that would have played in the Senior Game but this weather has been awefull.