Dix Hills, NY – The North Bellmore North Merrick Rebels competed in a pair of hard-fought battles with the Elwood Storm yesterday dropping the first game 4-3 and tying the second 4-4.

Under sunny skies on Mothers Day, the Rebels offense jumped out quickly in the first inning of game one to go ahead 3-0, only to give the lead right back in the bottom half. From that point, pitching, including the Rebels Nick Valeriano and Mike Proios, and fine defense on both sides stepped up and kept things dead-locked into the sixth. In Elwood’s home half of the sixth, their #4 hitter scorched a triple deep into the gap in right-centerfield. With one out and two-strikes on the #6 batter, the Rebels Mike Proios got a big swinging strike-out for the second out. On the throw back to the pitcher, the Elwood baserunner on third attempted a delayed steal of home. The Rebels were not caught entirely off-guard and threw home to get the runner caught in a pickle. Too many throws, though, kept the run-down play alive and the winning run scored, heart-breakingly, on a controversial obstruction call with home plate awarded to the baserunner.

Game two was another tight affair in a see-saw battle where leads were exchanged throughout. Pitchers Kevin McCleneghan, Brian Porricelli and Matt Conry combined to keep the Rebels in a position to win. Offensively, the Rebels performed well including extra-base hits from Matt Nilsen and Matt Coster. They also hit into some hard outs on excellent defensive play by the Storm. Porricelli launched another bomb to deep leftfield for a game-tying solo homerun in the fourth. Down the stretch, the Rebels had several chances to convert go-ahead runs but, in the end, through eight-innings of time-limited play, couldn’t come up with the clutch hit to break things open, leaving six baserunners stranded.

Between games, there was a beautiful Mothers Day luncheon with 6-foot heroes, salads and desserts and the boys gave long-stemmed roses to their moms.

This day was a good experience for the Rebels players in dealing with intense competition and adversity and provided some of the battle-hardening that will surely make them stronger as a team going forward.

The next NJBL Spring league game is Sunday May 15 against the Massapequa Coast Cyclones 3:00p at Gunther Field.

Garden City, NY – The North Bellmore North Merrick Rebels faced the Garden City Athletics this past Sunday and won both games of a double-header, 6-2 and 4-2. The Rebels continue to improve in their pursuit of ‘mid-season form’. Though the scores indicate close games, the Rebels were never behind and appeared to control the action throughout.

Rebels piching was strong with Nick Valeriano and Kevin McCleneghan splitting game one, and Jack Delaney and Brian Porricelli splitting game two. Behind the pitching, the Rebels defense had a solid day, as well.

While Garden City struggled to get anything going against NBNM’s hurlers, the Rebels’ bats put many balls in play. Unfortunately, too many fly balls led to easy outs for the A’s but there were also plenty of hits. Alec Acri, Matt Conry, Nick Valeriano, and Brian Porricelli provided multiple-hit games including a hellacious bomb off the bat of Porricelli that would have been well beyond any fenced field in the division. (Acri performed the rare feat of getting two hits in one AB when, after the plate ump incorrectly called a blast inside the left field line foul, he proceeded to smack a single up the middle!)

The Rebels meet the Elwood Storm at Caledonia Field for the second and final time of the Spring season next Sunday 5/8 for what will likely determine the NJBL 11/75 American division winner.

Thanks to the mothers who will be in attendance of next week’s game that will feature a post-game gathering for food, drink and appreciation of all the wonderful moms in the Rebels family!

Boys and girls throughout the United States ages 10 to 14 recently participated in the 2011 Knights of Columbus Free Throw Championship. The Knights of Columbus Free Throw Championship is sponsored annually, with winners progressing through local, district, and state competitions. International champions are later announced by the K of C international headquarters based on scores from the state-level competitions. Last year more than 223,000 sharpshooters participated in over 3,200 Local competitions.

When the Rebels’ own Michael Proios entered the Local competition at St. Barnabas in Bellmore back in January, he had no idea just how far he would go in this contest. By converting 12 out of 15 free throw attempts, Mike qualified to move on to the District level back at St Barnabas on February 12. Despite the additional pressure and clearly tougher competition, when his name was called, Mike sank a perfect 25 of the required 25 tries! He then advanced to the Regionals in Queens on April 2 where he made 24 out of 25 attempts qualifying him for the New York State competition at the prestigious West Point Military Academy! On Saturday April 9, in the West Point gym, for all the marbles, Mike stepped to the line and proceeded to drop in a best-in-class 22 out of 25 giving him the title of top 10-year-old boy free throw shooter in New York!

Mike and his family were then treated to a championship barbecue and spent the day meeting the Cadets and instructors and enjoying the majestic campus.

Congratulations Michael! Let him know how proud we are of him and his great accomplishment!

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coach sam

Massapequa, NY – The NBNM Rebels split a double-header with the Massapequa Coast Cyclones yesterday winning game one, 5 – 4, and dropping game two, 5 – 2.

Game one saw the Rebels jump out to an early lead that they maintained throughout but had Coast nipping at their heels and closing the gap the whole way. Nick Valeriano and Mike Proios pitched well enough to hold off Massapequa through 5 innings. Jack Delaney’s clutch RBI single in the top of the sixth set the table for Brian Porricelli, fresh off the DL and in the closer role, to sit Massapequa down 1-2-3 to end the game and preserve the Rebel win.

In the second game, the Rebels, for the second time in as many weeks, came out looking flat, unfocused and very sloppy. Starting pitcher Delaney was backed by terrible defensive support when the Rebels committed 3 errors in the top of the first inning alone giving Coast a 3 – 0 jumpstart. Kevin McCleneghan was very efficient in relief but the fielding folly continued throughout this game and the Rebels offense did not do nearly enough to compensate. Despite their struggles, the Rebels appeared to be bringing the tying run to the plate in their half of the sixth when, after Delaney had worked out a walk, Valeriano hit a hard shot past Massapequa’s left fielder that had double written all over it. Coast, though, managed a fine relay and Delaney was called out on a questionable call at third to end the game.

As tempting as it is to suspend the recognition of any web gems for yesterday given the extremely poor defense, the games were not without a few fielding highlights. One of note: The Rebels stepped up to diffuse a Massapequa scoring threat in the third inning of game one when Coast’s #5 hitter spanked a ball over left-fielder Andy Davila’s head for what appeared to be, at least, a two-base hit. But Davila hustled after the ball, threw a strike to cut-off man Alec Acri who fired a perfect relay to Delaney covering at second for the tag out.

Special thanks to call-up Andy Davila for filling in today with the Rebels’ Matt Coster still mending on the DL.

The Rebels return to play in two weeks to face the Garden City Athletics at Garden City.