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6/8/96 Game 1 of the Playoff's - We won!

6/15/96 Game 2 of the Playoff's - We lost...Now we are in the loser's bracket.

6/18/96 Game 3 of the Playoff's - We won!

6/20/96 Game 4 of the Playoff's - We won!

6/21/96 Game 5 of the Playoff's - We won!

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The Championship Games:

6/22/96 Game 6 of the Playoff's! This was game 1 of the AAA Championship Finals.

6/22/96 Game 7 (it WAS needed!) of the Playoff's! This was game 2 of the AAA Championship Finals.

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Regular Season Game Highlights and Scores:

5/2/96 We won! 18 to 4 with 10 hits. Our pitchers allowed only 1 hit and had 11 strikeouts. Matt R. and Peter C. each had a single, Ken M., Chris D. and Jason P. each had a double and a single while Kevin L. had 2 singles. Super job everyone!

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5/4/96 This game was a mud bowl free-for-all. We only played 3 innings and due to constant rain and about 2 inches of mud at home plate, the game was called after not even 3 complete innings. Even so, we had 9 Contacts and 7 hits. The score was 9 to 8 with us on top but due to the abrupt end, the game did not count. We held the opposing team to 7 Contacts, 5 Hits and 5 strikeouts.

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5/9/96 We won 15 to 14 in a game whose score did not really tell the story. The real story was Offense, Offense, Offense!!! Our hitters contacted the ball 23 times for a total offense of 19 Hits and 8 Walks. That means our batters were not standing there hoping for a walk. They were HITTING!! Kevin D., Chris D. and Kyle all had 2 singles, Jason had 2 singles and a double and Ken had 2 singles and a triple! Kevin L. had a single, a double and almost a triple but was thrown out at 3rd due to over-running 3rd base, Ben, Daryl, Joe, Matt and Peter all had a single. Our defense was good but we suffered a bit in the pitching. We used 5 pitchers in 5 innings. The first three pitchers only gave up 6 walks but the remaining 2 pitchers gave up 13 walks which is why they scored so much. The good news is that they only contacted the ball 6 times for a total of 3 hits.

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5/11/96 We won by a score of 16 to 12 in five innings of play. Once again the bats came alive and we had some good defensive plays. Our hitters contacted the ball 14 times with 13 hits and 12 walks. Most of our runs were scored by the hits. Our five pitchers allowed only 7 Contacts with the ball which resulted in only 5 hits. We did give up 11 walks which continues to be a sore spot. If our pitching improves, the team will be awesome! Team stat's are as follows: Matt R., Jason P. and Ken M. each had 2 singles, Kevin L. had an amazing single, double and a triple, Chris D., Joe P., Kyle T. and Jim H. each had a single. In pitching, Kevin D. did not give up any runs and Kevin L. only gave up 1 run. Our next game is Thursday.

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5/17/96 Thursday's game was rained out but we were able to make it up on Friday. The score was 14 to 13 in five innings of play with us coming out on top. It was a hard fought game against one of the more experienced coaches. Once again it came down to pitching and hitting. Our bats came alive for a whopping 12 hits against their 9 hits. The pitching was a little rusty to say the least and a lot of runs on both sides were scored by stealing on pass balls. I hate stealing in little league. My preference would be to teach how to hit and earn the runs vs. allowing stealing on a wild pitch. Anyway, enough preaching; here are the stat's: Kevin D., Peter C., Kyle T. and Ken M. had one single, Matt R., Jimmy H. and Chris D. had two singles and Kevin L. had both a single and a triple. I used five pitchers in five innings of play. Outstanding plays were made by Peter C., Joe P., Ben M. and Kevin L.

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5/18/96 We won! This was probably the best game ever by all players on the team. The score was 6 to 4 with only 5 hits by us. Our pitching finally gave some results to be proud of by giving up only 4 walks and an impressive total of 13 strikeouts. The other team played an excellent game as well with 5 hits. This was definitely a pitchers duel. I used 4 pitchers in 6 full innings of play. Here are the team stat's: Matt R., Kevin L. and Ken M. had a single and Kyle T. had 2 singles.

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5/22/96 We lost a tough battle 13 to 9. Unfortunately 3 of my better players were out due to vacations; 2 were in Florida (How dare they!) and one with bad allergies (Darn that pollen!). We still managed to collect 6 hits with 10 walks. Jimmy H. caught for the first time in a regular season game and did a great job. Hits were collected by Matt R., Kyle T. and Peter C. (1 single) while Kudos' went to Chris D. who managed to squeak out 2 singles and a triple! The game was lost due to my starting pitchers being out. Our remaining pitchers gave up 15 walks but only 4 hits. Take away the walks and...well you know.

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5/29/96 Oooooh Nooooo! We lost our second game in a row but it was a close score of 17 to 15 with us having a chance to win in the last inning but a close play at the plate ended the challenge. This was a good hitting game with us collecting 8 hits and 15 walks. Hits were collected by Kevin D. and Jimmy H. (1 single each), Matt R. had a big stick with 2 singles and a double, Kevin L. had 2 singles and Daryl M. had a double. This time we were still missing our Florida vacationing boys but one starting pitcher returned. We had a LITTLE problem with control tonight...how does 19 walks and 7 hits grab you? Matt R. and Kevin L. combined with an outstanding effort to almost pull off the win but we were a day late and dollar short on this one. I think we will do better in the next game.

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6/1/96 With this being our second to last regular season game I am still doing some fine tuning. We lost this game but by a close score of 13 to 12. We were coming back in the last inning and the 3rd out was a called 3rd strike which was at head level. An appeal to the 2nd umpire brought disappointing results. I was told by the plate umpire that because the batter was crouched down in his stance, the strike zone covered his head...GIVE ME A BREAK!!! I hope during the playoff's we get some real umpires. We won the game on statistics: We had 11 hits, 9 walks and 10 K's. They had 7 hits, 9 walks and 10 K's. We had some inexperience on the mound and at the catcher position today but that is the only way they will get experience so I'd rather have mistakes made now than in the playoff's. Here are the stat's: Chris D. had the big bat with 3 singles, Matt R., Daryl M.and Kevin L. had 2 singles, Kevin D. had a single and hats off to Ken M. who managed an in-the-park Home Run! The pitching is improving and next game should be interesting.

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6/4/96 Our last game of the regular season ended with a win with a score of 15 to 7. We had great pitching from five different pitchers and great base running from several players. A couple of players actually got in a pickle and managed to get back to a base safely. The top hitter today was Kevin L. with a triple and single while Matt R. was not far behind with a double and a single. Jason P. came up with two singles while Chris D., Ken M. and Kevin D. tweaked out one single each. I was very pleased with the performance of the team tonight. Our first playoff game is Saturday June 8, 1996 so stay tuned for more Phillies baseball.

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Playoff Game Highlights and Scores:

6/8/96 From the toss of the coin, something was different about this game. I actually won the toss and chose to be the home team which proved to be a blessing. The first inning ended with the score being 1 to 1 with both teams having good pitching. The second inning ended with the score 3 to 3. Things started to change in the third inning as we made a couple of mistakes. The score at the end of three was 6 to 5 in their favor. In the fourth inning the other team surged ahead slightly and we made a couple of mistakes so the score at the end of four was 9 to 6 in their favor. The fifth inning saw some improved pitching on our part and they did not score any more runs. We came to bat and our bats came alive with three doubles and two singles to score four runs and we won the game due to time constraints by a score of 10 to 9. The big bat award today went to Ken M. with 3 doubles, Matt R. had a double and a single, Kevin L. had a double and singles were obtained by Chris D., Kevin D., Peter C., Ben M. and Daryl M. All combined we came up with 15 contacts of the ball and 11 hits. I was very proud of the way the team conducted themselves on and off the field. Our next game is Saturday June 15 at 12:45 PM.

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6/15/96 Well all I can say about this game is that at least we showed up! Again we won the toss and chose to be the home team. A couple things were going against us this time. I had 2 players out sick and the temperature was in the 90's with NO breeze. It was HOT! In this league pitching is everything and we just couldn't hit against their pitching. We still weren't through our entire lineup at the start of the 4th inning. Nine strikeouts in the first 3 innings didn't help. Despite that, we held them after three innings to a score of 5 to 0. We finally came alive in the 4th and 5th innings coming up with 3 runs and only gave up 2 more runs in those 2 innings. With the score 7 to 3 we went into the 6 inning. They immediately put back in their starter and he held us to only 1 run in the 6th so the final score was 9 to 4. Kyle T., Daryl M., Ben M., Kevin L., Ken M. and Kevin D. all had a single a piece but that was it. The next game is Tuesday June 18 at 5:30 PM.

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6/18/96 This game was won by us with a score of 20 to 16 but not without creating many more gray hairs on this manager's head! Would you believe we gave up an unbelievable 25 walks but still won the game? The other team gave up 17 walks and 10 hits and that made the difference in the score. We played 5 innings in 2 hrs and 15 minutes. Hits were obtained by the following players: Peter C., Kyle T., Joe P., Ben M. and Daryl M all picked up singles while the big hitters for the night were Kevin L. with 3 singles and Matt R. with a double and a single. The next game is scheduled for Thursday June 20.

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6/20/96 This was by far the best game we have played all season. Being in the loser's bracket, we are forced to play 3 days in a row so I am forced to use a different pitcher every inning in order to use the pitcher the next night in case we win. It is a gamble but if you don't manage your pitching staff that way, you are guaranteed to lose if you get to the finals. Tonight we used 6 pitchers in 6 innings and the game was finished in less than 2 hrs. Our first 4 pitchers pitched a shutout for the first 4 innings. They came back and scored 1 in the 5th and 3 in the 6th but not before we had scored 12 runs in the six innings. The final score was 12 to 4 with us on top. Our pitching staff only gave up 9 walks and 7 hits. We came up with 13 hits and only 4 walks. Tonight most everyone was hitting the ball. Kyle T., Peter C., Kevin D. and Daryl M. picked up a single each, while Matt R. had 2 doubles and a single, Ken M. had a triple and 2 doubles, Kevin L. came up with a double and a single and Chris D. had 2 singles. Our next game is Friday June 21, 1996.

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6/21/96 My Dream has finally come true...we are in the finals! In all my years of coaching and managing, this is my happiest experience. To see each child learn about baseball and improve throughout the season and then to see them make some big plays to take us to the finals is just a great feeling. We played the team that knocked us out of the winner's bracket tonight and it was a very intense game at the end. We picked up 9 runs in four innings while we held them to 1 run. Peter C. made a great catch and play in the 3rd inning to end the inning with a double play at second. This game went the full 6 innings with the ending in doubt until the final out. We had some trouble with throwing errors in the 5th inning which brought the other team back into contention with a score of 9 to 6. In the 6th inning they had their best pitcher in and Kevin L. hit the ball to the fence for a triple! We ended up getting only 2 runs to leave the score after 5 1/2 at 11 to 7. The other team came up to bat and they got a walk, single and then the next batter struck out. The 4th batter walked to load the bases and the 5th batter struck out. Now there were 2 outs with the bases loaded. My pitcher walked the next 2 batters bringing in 2 more runs to make the score 11 to 9 with 2 outs and the bases loaded. The final batter hit a driving ground ball to short and he fielded the ball and tagged out the runner to end the inning as the runner ran by. The other team didn't even know what had happened. At the end of the game, the other team's coach came over and gave their game ball to my son who hit the triple off his son the pitcher. The coach told us that no one has gotten a hit off his son and my son deserved the game ball for the game. Now that made me the proudest father around! As far as the stat's go, Jason P., Kyle T., Matt R. and Ken M. hit singles, Joe P. hit a double, Chris D. hit two singles and the big bat for the day went to Kevin L. with a double and a triple! Our next game is tomorrow, Saturday June 22, 1996. This is the final day for the Playoff's and will determine 1st and 2nd place.

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Championship Game Highlights and Scores:

6/22/96 Game 1 of the AAA Division Championship.
All along I had told my team that they had the ability to go all the way and here we were in the championships. The weather was damp and dreary as we tossed the coin to see who would be the home team. I won the toss so chose to be the home team. We started the game at 8:57 AM and sent 10 batters to the plate in the 1st inning and scored 5 runs. They sent 10 batters as well and after one inning the score was tied 5 to 5. In the 2nd inning we again sent 10 batters to the plate scoring 6 runs. Our pitcher Ben M. held them to 2 runs so after 2 the score was 11 to 7. The pitching improved in the 3rd inning and both teams scored 1 to leave the score at 12 to 8 in our favor. The 4th inning was exciting for us as once again we sent 10 players to the plate with us scoring 6 more runs. Our best pitcher pitched during this inning and they scored no runs. After 4 it was 18 to 8 with us on top. In the 5th inning, my pitching weakened and we allowed 10 batters to the plate with them scoring another 6 runs. We scored 2 more so the score after 5 was 20 to 14. At this point, I was beginning to wonder if we really could pull this game off. I had used all my strong pitchers and was now using my weaker ones. In the end, the hitting would be our strongest point. The 6th inning began with them scoring a whopping 7 runs to pull into the lead with a score of 21 to 20. We still would get our at bats so I gathered my players around me and told them that if they believed in themselves, they could win the game. I held my breath as the 1st batter hit a single and stole to 3rd base. The 2nd batter then hit a single to drive in the tieing run. He then stole 2nd and 3rd and was waiting on 3rd base as the 3rd batter struck out and the next batter hit a fly ball to the shortstop. Now there were 2 outs. The next batter came to the plate and all season had not been hitting the ball. The pitch came and he proceeded to slam a solid hit into the outfield to drive in the winning run. The game was over and we had won by a score of 21 to 20. An interesting item to mention is that the scoreboard was only capable of displaying up to 19 runs so it drove the players and parents nuts not knowing what the real score was.
The hitting is what made the difference. Here are the people who helped win the game: Pitchers included Matt R., Ben M., Ken M., Kevin L., Chris D. and Kevin D. As far as the hitting; Jason P. hit a single, Kevin D., Kyle T. and Ken M. hit 2 singles each, Peter C. hit a double, Joe P. and Chris D. each had a single and a double, Ben M. hit 2 singles and a double, Jim H. hit 3 singles, Matt R. hit 2 singles, a double and a triple and Kevin L. hit 3 singles. As you can see we had a total of 25 hits! It was the most explosive offense on the field all year. Well, the 1st game took 2 hours 40 minutes and since we won the 1st game by beating the unbeaten team, a second game was needed to determine the champion. The game was scheduled to start at noon. Read on for that game's highlights....

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Everyone on the team received a game ball after the championship games. Each ball was from an actual game they played in and was inscribed with their batting average and stats

6/22/96 Game 2 of the AAA Division Championship.

This is the game my strategy was geared to. I knew if I could get the team to this game, we had a pretty good chance of taking it all. I had used 6 different pitchers all week to get to the finals so I still had all my good pitchers for at least one inning for this game and it showed. I lost the toss so they chose home team so we had to switch dugouts. That suited me just fine because our bats were hot and I wanted to let them hit away right away. In the 1st inning, we sent 10 batters to the plate and scored 7 runs. Matt R. started pitching for us in the 1st inning and they too sent 10 batters but scored only 5 runs. In the 2nd inning we again sent 10 batters to the plate and scored another 7 runs. Ken M. pitched a shutout that inning so after 2 it was 14 to 5 with us on top. In the 3rd inning, we sent 7 batters to the plate and scored 3 more runs. I had Kevin L. pitching now for 2 innings and figured he could hold them. Sure enough they scored no runs in the 3rd inning so after 3 it was 17 to 5. We started the 4th inning strongly and brought another 10 batters to the plate scoring another 6 runs. Kevin L. pitched again but after pitching and catching in both games, he was tiring out. They brought 10 batters to the plate and scored another 8 runs to make the score 23 to 13 after 4 innings. The 5th inning was another awesome inning for us as we sent yet another 10 batters to the plate and scored another 5 runs. I then had Ben M. go out and pitch the 5th inning. Ben is only 8 years old but proved to be one of my best pitchers. He held them to only 2 runs so after 5 innings of play we were ahead by a score of 28 to 15. At that point, I went to talk to the umpires and managers from the other team. My team stayed in the dugout and were quiet as a mouse. With us up by more than 10 runs there was no way for them to win in the 6th so the game was called with us becoming the new AAA Division Champions. I turned around and walked slowly at first towards the dugout. Every eye was on me as I came towards them but as I got closer a huge grin began to show and I mouthed the words "We WON!!!" and they went ballistic in the dugout. They poured out onto the playing field and ran around all the bases from 3rd base to 2nd to 1st to home and then back to me standing there with a huge smile on my face. We had done it at last...

The game was won by solid defense, solid pitching and solid hitting by all. Here are the hitting statistics: Kevin D. hit 2 singles, Joe P. and Ben M. hit a single and a double, Jim H. hit 3 singles, Matt R. hit 2 doubles and a single, Ken M. and Chris D. both hit 2 singles and a double, Kevin L. hit 3 singles and Daryl M. hit a single.
As I look back and reflect on the season, I couldn't be happier with the results and most of all, the improvement of all the players. As we began the first practice, each child on the team signed a baseball (my team souvenir) and I told them that this would be the beginning of their becoming a team. They all improved throughout the season and learned what baseball and sportsmanship is all about. My thanks goes out to all the children and their parents who helped make my dream come true and I will be grinning from ear to ear as I watch each child continue to play baseball for years to come. Thank you team and thank you Hudson Youth Baseball for giving me the opportunity to manage the team!

After handing out the trophies, we had to do our trademark cheer...Go Phillies!

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To Play Fair is my goal!

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Welcome To

The 1996 Hudson Phillies Home Page

The Hudson Youth Baseball 1996 AAA Division Champions

A Special Thanks to Dr. Chamberlin Orthodontics of Hudson, NH

for sponsoring our team!

Last updated in May 31, 1997

Regular Season, Playoff's, Championship Games!

Regular Season Game Highlights and Scores:

Playoff Game Highlights and Scores:

Championship Game Highlights and Scores:

The Hudson Youth Baseball
1996 AAA Division Champions