After Some Reflection Coach Even More Proud of Berlin Little League's Performance

The Berlin Little League has a long history of success with two state champions at the 12-year old category.

This summer added to that long history. The Minor League team participated in the Hardware City Tournament and finished as the top seed in pool play before being knocked out. The 9-10-year old team made it out of the district play into the crossover round. The 12-year old team also made the crossover and fell in the championship game to Edgewood of Bristol.

The 11-year old team advanced the furthest and took the most difficult route to do so. In both the District crossover and State Sectional Rounds, Berlin lost its opener. Berlin came back to win the district and advanced to the finals of the Sectional championship to finish in the top four in the state. But the locals finally lost twice to Fairfield to finish the summer.

"We didn't play as well as we could have but the ball just seemed to fall for them and not fir us," Berlin 11s coach Lenny Tubbs said. "We scored three runs in the first inning the second time we played Fairfield but we weren't able to shut them down." 

Tubbs said despite the losses, his team surprised people.

"I couldn't be more proud of these kids," Tubbs said. "We did a lot of things that people didn't think we could do. We repeated as District champs and went back to the Final Four. That is pretty good for a town that is small compared to some of these others. Fairfield has about 65,000 people and two leagues so Berlin with 20,000 people is still pretty small in comparison. 

"Berlin is right there with any Little League program in the state. We will be back, we have a great group of kids and we'll have a pretty big target on our back next year. If I'm lucky enough to be able to coach them again, I think we can do some great things."

Tubbs said the Fairfield coaches told him Berlin was the best team they had played all year.

"The people of Berlin should be very proud of the Little League program in town," Tubbs said. "They should be proud of what all the teams accomplished top to bottom and we'll go after it again next year." 

The 11-year old team were: Dan Veleas, Tyler Lappe, Tyler Tralli, Tim Heinke, Giancarlo Tufano, Adam Bilinsky, Zach Murray, Alex Halkias, Vince Dastoli, Jeff Kuzoian, Tom Hyjek and Kevin Dunn. Coaches were: Lenny Tubbs, Nick Halkias and Travis Lappe.