Rochester's Roger Allen 10U and 9U baseball teams are New England runners-up
It has been a summer to remember in 2022 for the Roger Allen 10-and-under and 9-and-under baseball teams. Both won New Hampshire state championships and both have returned to Rochester this week as Cal Ripken youth baseball New England runners-up.
The Roger Allen 10U team fell in its regional championship game to Milton, Massachusetts, 6-3 on Thursday in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Milton advanced to the World Series, which will be played in Indiana.
Roger Allen had won its local district tournament, the New Hampshire state tournament and had won four games in the New England regional before losing the final, ending a 13-game winning streak one victory shy of a berth in the World Series.
"They battled, they played hard and they have a lot of grit," Roger Allen 10U coach Andrew Welch said. "We just came up short last night; we started a little too late. We've been known to fall behind early and claw our way out, and that's what we've done, we've clawed and battled all year."
The Roger Allen 10U team includes Brayam Brown, Gavin Hamilton, Bruin Henderson, Logan LaCoss, Camden Morales, Alexander Roman, Jacob Ruff, Jackson Stokes, Easton Truax, Remy Veno, Lincoln Welch and Cohan Wheeler.
"The kids just battled, they battled hard from start to finish," Welch said.
The team only took three days off this season, adopting the 'No Days Off' mantra, the coach said.
"We got the kids together and we practiced, sometimes it was light with just a quick batting practice, but we'd still get them in," Welch saidd. "They really started to gel, and the more and more we played, the more they started to gel together. It was fun."
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Roger Allen 9U
The Roger Allen 9U team fell to 11-1 to Winchester, Massachusetts, in its New England championship game Thursday night in West Harttford, Connecticut.
"We got jumped on in the first inning, and we just never recovered," Roger Allen 9U coach Josh Jones said. "It was a long week for a lot of our kids."
The team showed tremendous work ethic throughout the summer, he added.
The Roger Allen 9U team includes Bryce Allard, Dylan Ball, Oliver Drapeau, Kyle Hall, Hunter Jones, Colin Lapierre, Nick Masse, Parker Meserve, Cody Nagle, Jacob Ross, Matthew Tanguay and Keegan Tompson.
"These kids, they didn't hang their heads and they all lifted each other up," Jones said. "We had no negativity, not even a negative chant towards the other team, everything was positive."
Jones said the team received a lot of praise for being respectful and disciplined.
"One of the cool things is we were just a couple of games into it, and there were kids from other teams, and from other state championship teams, that were there watching our games and rooting for our kids by name, like they were fans of our kids," he said. "That was really cool to see, and that says a lot of what they thought about us and how well those kids played."
Previous story: Roger Allen 9s win second straight Cal Ripken state title
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Rochester's Roger Allen 10U and 9U baseball teams are N.E. runners-up
