For the first time in quite some time, Madison entered a team into the Senior League (13-16 year-old) tournament. The Senior League typically attracts fewer players than the younger divisions, and because of the smaller number of leagues who actually had seasons this year, the Senior tournament began at the Sectional level.

Madison fielded a team of 16 players, primarily 15 year-olds, many of whom lost their HS baseball season earlier this spring. We faced a team from Par-Troy East in a best-of-five series.

Playing at Dodge Field, Madison won the first game 10-9 in extra innings on August 30 and went up 2-0 in the series with an 11-7 victory on August 31. A long layoff didn't seem to help us, however, as we dropped game three 9-12 on September 9 on Parsippany's home field at Jannarone Park. The win gave PTE the momentum they needed as they won out the series on September 11 and 12 and advanced to the NJ Senior League State Championship Tournament on September 26-27 in Berkeley Township.

Following the loss, Coach Kevin McManus shared some words with his players, "I'm proud of how we played every game. As a team we gave maximum effort to each game and we left it all on the on the field. As coaches, that's all we could ask for." He went on to add this encouragement: "we all have seen the success the [Madison] HS team has had over the past few seasons and every player on this team has the ability to contribute to the continued success of [that] program."

We couldn't agree more. Thanks to all of the players, parents, coaches and other volunteers who made the Senior tournament possible this year.