Dirty Birds thriving against quality baseball teams

Last year, the Monroe Township travel team did just that — traveled to Lamar, Colo., and participated in the Cal Ripken 10-year-old World Series, finishing in an impressive fourth place.

This season, now a year older, the Dirty Birds, as they’re called, are embarking on a schedule they hope earn them another trip to Colorado. This time Monroe wants to win it all.

A gauge as to how successful the Dirty Birds can be came during a tournament in South Plainfield two weeks ago when they captured the championship against teams made up of players a year older.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the boys,” said Manager Mike Peto. “We’ve challenged ourselves to play against better competition this year by going up against quality teams in Delaware and kids a year older than us. It’s not about the wins or losses but more about providing the kids an opportunity to get better by playing the best competition we can find.”

Monroe’s opening round game proved to be one of only two times it came up short this season. The opponent from North Edison was not only older but physically more imposing as is often the case between youngsters who are one year apart in age. With a loss in the opening round, the Dirty Birds needed a victory to remain in the tournament, and managed to so against a quality opponent from Hazlet, 5-3.

In order to stay alive in the tournament, Monroe needed to win both of its next two games. In the first contest, the Dirty Birds went against the host team from South Plainfield. At stake was a berth in the championship game Monday night against the same team Monroe had lost to in the opening round — North Edison. The Dirty Birds responded with a 12-6 win.

In the championship game, Monroe fell behind early, 3-0, but responded with a three-run second inning to tie the game. In the fourth inning, the Dirty Birds posted five runs in the top of the fourth inning to take an 8-3. The resilient North Edison team bounced back, however, scoring four runs in their next at-bat and another in the fifth to tie the game 8-8.

In the top of the sixth, with two outs, Matt Horn worked a walk, stole second and third bases and then scored when North Edison’s third baseman couldn’t handle Anthony Tagliaferro’s hard hit ball. Leading 9-8, Monroe scored three more runs on consecutive hits by Eric Heatter, Nicky Lombard, Kyle Daly and R.J. Dreyfuss. Heatter, who was on the mound, was able to retire the side in order to seal the championship.

Monroe’s title, when combined with the Dirty Birds’ second-place finish at the Memorial Day Sports at the Beach Tournament, makes them 10-2 in tournament games. The Memorial Day weekend featured a trip to Delaware where the team competed against 15 11U teams from around the Northeast. The team finished 6-1 losing only to an elite club team from Paramus, 6-5, in the championship game.

Other members of the Dirty Birds include Joe Filiano, Mike Granda, Thomas Fleites, Chris Kutz, Chris Perdoni, Aidan Lavan, Rob Peto, Matt Horn and Kyle Daly. The team is managed by Peto and assisted coaches Jim Heatter, Lou Granda, Sal Filiano, Kevin Horn and Gerry Fleites.