A big league celebration launched the Niskayuna 15-year-old division Babe Ruth baseball team’s long trip to a field many of them had only dreamed of reaching.
The Niskayuna Warriors earned their colors with an undefeated run through the Mid-Atlantic Regional series and advanced to the Babe Ruth World Series in Van Buren, Ark., marking the first time any team from the town has reached the pinnacle tournament. The tournament runs through Sunday, Aug. 26.
Family and friends came together at Blatnick Park Thursday, Aug. 16, before the team loaded its gear into vans and headed to the airport. A battery of cameras snapped away as parents and members of the media vied to capture the team holding its congratulatory banner.
“It is a once in a lifetime chance,” Right Fielder Kyle Pick said. “Not a lot of people get this, so we are just going to live it up to the fullest. We are going to take it slowly, just take everything in, and we are just going to get along and have some fun.”
Making it to the World Series means a lot to the members of the close-knit team.
“This team has been together since we were like 10 years old,” Pick said. “We just have a bond that not a lot of teams usually have.”
Pitcher Adam Gleason said the players work well together and “took it inning by inning” in the season leading up to the World Series. When the team was down on the scoreboard, the players never gave up, Gleason said.
“We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we work to our strengths,” he said.
Pick said the team made one goal at the beginning of the season — to make it Arkansas.
“We just worked for it,” he said. “We knew what we had to do to get there and everybody just stepped up and they did their job. We just came through and we made it here.”
The team might have reached its goal, but the players weren’t calling it quits yet. Now, their goal is to capture the World Series and top the best teams in the nation.
Closing pitcher Brian Toy said the teams they’d face would probably be “bigger and better” than teams they have played before. Also, never playing any of the teams before is another challenge to overcome.
But with a strong offense, several players said the series could Niskayuna’s for the taking.
“If our hitting stays the way it is we could win this whole thing,” Pitcher and First Baseman Tommy Favata said.
Catcher Tommy Spataro said the team’s triumph “hasn’t really sunk in,” even as the vans were being packed for the trip ahead.
Spataro said Coach Chris Bianchi told the team to “remain humble” in the face of what is already a great success.
“They don’t look past any game,” Bianchi said. “They know they’ve got to play as well as they can in every game and that will obviously continue with the teams that we are going to play down there.”
Bianchi said the camaraderie of the team has been an important aspect in reaching the World Series.
“They pick each other up, so the lows don’t get too low and they stay pretty steady,” he said. “I think it has helped them to stay and play more consistent.”
He said the team is going to be as confident as any team they’ll face in the World Series and knows what it can accomplish.
“We are in a good place mentally and we are healthy, reasonably healthy considering the number of games we played,” he said. “Hopefully we will do well.”
Making it to the World Series is a great accomplishment, but for Bianchi he said it is all about how proud he is of the team.
“When you coach kids, you want it for them more than for yourself, and all the credit goes to them,” he said.
