Lightning struck twice for the New Hyde Park Little League this year as the 11- and 12-year-old girls softball and boys majors baseball teams succeeded in post-season play.
The girls team advanced all the way to the Softball Little League World Series after winning state and regional titles – the first New Hyde Park girls team to advance that far. The boys team won the district championship, but lost amid controversy in the section round that precedes the state tournament.
Tom Pellegrino, outgoing president of the New Hyde Park Little League, said the success of the two teams was no accident.
“I don’t think enough people have been given credit for the development of the softball team,” Pellegrino said.
Pellegrino said manager Tom Donnelly and coaches Tom Grimshaw and Tom Fitzpatrick deserve a great deal of credit for guiding the World Series team.
But he said the success of this year’s girls team began in 1996, when Sonja Tempone approached then-Little Leage president Robert Johnson about starting a girls softball program.
With Tempone as the league’s first softball commissioner, the girls juniors, aged 13 and 14, captured two successive local tournament titles in 2004 and 2005 under the leadership of Al Weinman.
In 2008, manager Joe Kresback guided the girls senior team, aged 15 and 16, to New Hyde Park’s first district championship, took the state title and advanced to the eastern regional championship game. The team lost in a 2-1 title match against a team from New Jersey, but succeeded in raising the profile of girls softball.
From a handful of teams that initially competed against squads from neighboring villages, the New Hyde Park softball program grew to 120 players in 2006 and 210 players in 2009. That year the league had four teams in each of four age groups, including minors, aged 9 and 10; majors, aged 11-12, juniors and seniors.
“When they’re winning, you get more interest,” Pellegrino said.
Participation, she said, has now hit a peak of around 200 players.
Pellegrino said competition intensified as league officials connected with Little League pitching coach John Montefusco, who started coaching 22 pitchers for girls softball in the past several years, including Jenny Hickey, Melissa Ward and Kayla Fitzpatrick of the current girls softball Little League eastern region champs.
As the pitching improved, the hitting gradually improved as the hitters became accustomed to competing at a higher level.
“The competition got better and better because your batters are facing good pitchers,” said Will Hickey, commissioner of girls softball for the past several years.
Montefusco also conducted clinics that helped improve the girls’ bunting and base running skills.
“He gave us a lot of insight about what it takes to get to the next level,” Hickey said.
Ed Mooney, who preceded Hickey as softball commissioner, also brought new insight by taking tips from a successful softball program in East Meadow. That included purchasing a batting machine – financed by a car-wash fundraiser – to push the batters progress.
Joseph Fornataro, the Little League’s chief of umpires, said his daughter Geena would not be a successful pitcher as a sophomore at New Hyde Park Memorial High School, if she hadn’t played Little League softball.
“If it wasn’t for Little League, my daughter would never be the pitcher she is today,” Fornataro said.
Little League board member Michele Morales saw her oldest daughter Katie play on the successful seniors teams in 2008 and 2009, and watched her youngest daughter Gabby play in the World Series this year. She credits Phyllis Nuzzi, one of the early managers for girls softball, for giving the program momentum.
“She made it fun for them,” Morales said, recalling that Nuzzi attended games wearing a tiara instead of a baseball cap.
Vinnie Grunert, vice president of baseball operations, has served for on the board for 14 years, managing teams that his two sons, Dean and Chris, played on as part of his lifelong involvement with Little League.
“I’ve lived in this town my whole life. I played in this league when I was a kid,” Grunert said.
Little League unofficially started in New Hyde Park in 1938 in 7,500-seat Barton’s Stadium, a ball park where the Brooklyn Dodgers Roy Campanella once played, located on the south side of Jericho Turnpike east of New Hyde Park Road. But leagues were officially formed in 1954 for players eight to 12 years old by Richard Beale, Joseph Balsome, Arthur Roth and Harry Huben.
A high point of New Hyde Park Little League competition was achieved in 1968 when boys seniors won the Senior League World Championship. That squad included Bob Avellini – a future quarterback for the Chicago Bears and son of manager Hayden Avellini – and Gary Christenson, a future pitcher for the Kansas City Royals.
Under league president George Burkhardt’s 22 years of leadership, New Hyde Park Little League teams took 30 tournament titles.
Pellegrino witnessed the first girls softball state title in 2008 in Valhalla. The team was behind when he arrived at the field and he recalled telling the players, “I didn’t come here to see you lose this game.”
They came back to win 8-7, and some of those same women are still playing on a college travel team today.
During his tenure, Pellegrino started the New Hyde Park Athletic Association travel teams, which had nine teams this summer with players aged eight through 16 years old. Several of the girls softball champions have been playing together on travel teams for the past several years.
Pellegrino managed his youngest son, Nicholas, on the boys majors team with coaches Dennis Rowinsky and Pat Parente that lost in a controversial game to a team that some New Hyde Park Little League officials believe may have included players who do not live in the district they represented. His older sons Mike and Tom also played in Little League.
Pellegrino’s daughter Lisa, is a now a junior at New Hyde Park Memorial, using her Little League acumen to play shortstop on the girls softball team there.
Pellegrino, Katie Morales, Geena Fornataro, Kristen Hickey, Kayla Robinson, Lisa O’Callahan, Amanda Turner, Christina Burkey, Brianna Kresback, and Rosa Russi were all honored as all-conference players at the past few high school softball awards dinner. Pellegrino. Fornataro and Hickey were all members of last year’s girls junior district title softball team.
The Little League awards scholarships each year to a girl and a boy to help to enable them to play in college. Pellegrino said the backbone of the village little league are the 45 to 55 local merchants who sponsor teams each year, including Reid Sakowich, who was inducted into the league’s hall of fame this year.
“It’s a combined effort to elevate our town,” said Hickey, adding that the league needs more people to “step up” and participate.
The New Hyde Park Village Board of Trustees supports the effort by helping to maintain Nuzzi Field and providing office space for the leagues on the second floor of Village Hall.
“It’s been a hell of a run. We made a lot of friends,” Pellegrino said.
The girls softball team was honored by three of those admiring friends, state Sen. Jack Martins, Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello and New Hyde Park Trustee Donald Barbieri, at a pizza party for the girls at Gino’s Trattoria & Pizzeria in New Hyde Park on Tuesday night. The players and coaches were treated to pizzas and presented with citations from Martins and Nicolello for their success in the Little League Softball World Series, where they finished fifth in the tournament.
“This is a small community team,” Martins said. “To think that you’re world-beaters is a wonderful thing.”
The girls softball team is to be honored in pre-game ceremonies at Citifield before the New York Mets play the Philadelphia Phillies on Sept. 19.
