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Massapequa, NY – How do you beat great pitching, smart, solid defense and timely hitting? As Massapequa Coast can tell you: you don’t. The North Bellmore North Merrick Rebels featured all those things and more on a night they dominated play and set the tone as the team to beat in the Williamsport District 31 play-offs. The Rebels walked off with a convincing 6-2 victory and some well-earned swagger.

Rebels starter Nick Valeriano was outstanding and, assisted by a great defensive play by Jack Delaney going deep into the hole at short, immediately put Coast hitters on their heels sitting them down in order in the first.

The Rebels then jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Delaney, who reached on a error, made his way to third and took home on a wild pitch.

Nick returned to the hill and, again, had Coast batters shaking their heads after another 1-2-3 inning in the second.

Though Coast’s offense was unable to threaten, the weather did and so began a deluge that led to a 50-minute rain delay that threatened to steal the Rebels’ momentum. It did not dampen the high spirits of the Rebels players, however, who stood in their dugout while singing and laughing to innumerable choruses of "Mr. Golden Sun" (of ‘Barney and Friends’ fame). It apparently worked as the clouds slowly parted and the shining sun appeared in the western sky. A truly impressive effort by the Burns Park grounds crew and friends somehow returned the field to very playable condition and the game resumed in the bottom of the second.

The Rebels confirmed they hadn’t lost a beat when they loaded the bases and Alec Acri pulled a clutch, 3-RBI double to left to put NBNM ahead 4-0.

Coast threatened in the third when 2 men reached base but the Rebels defense held.

The Rebels kept the pressure on in their half of the third when Tyler McPartland singled, took second on a wild pitch, and was driven in by Eric Solomon who doubled into the gap in left-center. Jack Delaney followed with a well-struck triple to left plating Solomon, and the Rebels stretched their lead to 6-0.

After both teams went quietly in the fourth inning, Coast came up in the fifth with their work cut out for them. With Valeriano nearing his pitch-count limit, the first two Coast batters reached on a walk and their first (and only) hit of the night. Having completed his great performance, Nick handed the ball off to Kevin McCleneghan. K-Mac grazed the first batter he faced and Coast had the bags juiced and nobody out. The Rebels smartly stayed relaxed, simply playing for outs with a big lead. McCleneghan induced two ground balls that went 4-to-6 and 5-to-3 and got a big strike out to end the inning with a 6-2 lead.

The Rebels put men on base but failed to score in the bottom half of the fifth.

K-Mac proceeded to work a 1-2-3 sixth inning culminating with two nasty knuckle-drops to strike out the final batter, combined with Nick for the one-hitter, and the Rebels advanced to round two of the winners bracket.

The Rebels Williamsport bid continues Thursday July 1, 5:30pm at Burns Park when they face the winner of tonight’s Massapequa International/Wantagh contest.

North Bellmore, NY – The Three Village Yankees topped the North Bellmore North Merrick Rebels Wednesday in the first contest of the NJBL Summer League.

Over the first five innings, the Yankees chipped away to a 4-0 lead as the Rebels played less than stellar defense, struggled to put hits together and could not execute their usually effective ‘small ball’ when they did have men reach base.

NBNM showed their tenacity, however, when their bats awoke in the bottom of the sixth and they plated 4 runs to force extra innings.

In the top of the seventh, though, the Yankees scratched out one more, which held up for the 5-4 final.

In post-game comments, preparing the team for next week’s tournament, Coach Bob Delaney noted, "This was like a typical Williamsport game where the team that makes the most mistakes loses and today we made more mistakes."

The Rebels next game is Monday 6/28, 5:30pm at Burns Park in Massapequa as they kick-off their bid for the 2010 Williamsport Tournament.

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Schedule Update

Posted by Sam Acri at Jun 24, 2010 9:51AM PDT ( 0 Comments )

The Final Schedule for the summer (Rev 10) is now uploaded to the website.
Any changes from this point forward will be done via e-mail or team announcement.
Please make sure you are all working from the most current one (Rev 10 6/24/2010).
In addition the dictions for all away games has been uploaded.

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Good Start

Posted by Sam Acri at Jun 14, 2010 12:22PM PDT ( 1 Comment )

Hey guys:

Just wanted to say that I was very pleased with yesterday’s practice, everyone looked sharp both in the field and batting.
We will have several practices this week as we start moving towards the summer, so keep up the good work.

Coach Sam

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2010 Team Photos/Graphics

Posted by Mike Conry at Jun 7, 2010 6:41AM PDT ( 0 Comments )

Obviously, the 2010 Rebels feature a slightly different lineup along with the other changes of growing boys. Some time after everyone receives their new uni orders we will set aside a little time at an upcoming practice TBD to get updated photos and I will use these to update the images associated with websites, team stores, etc.