PCYBL Major & Minor League All-Star Games, playoffs on tap over next few days at Lyon Park

May 29, 2024 at 10:02 p.m.

The PCYBL Majors team Rye Ridge Tile, one of the ages 10-12 Major League teams that will be competing in the playoffs at Lyon Park starting Monday. (Courtesy photo of Stephen Rytelewski)

Port Chester's Little League-aged baseball stars of tomorrow will come out to play big time games at Lyon Park in the next few days.

The Port Chester Youth Baseball League will kick off the stepped up activity with Major and Minor League All-Star games starting at around noon Saturday (6/1).

And the 10 in-house Major and Minor League teams will begin their playoffs Monday (6/3), same place, different times.

Each game will have its own plots and sub-plots, including the 12U (age 12 and under) PCYBL Pirates travel team looking to raise the final $5Gs of the $25,000 they needed to raise in the past year so they can play against the nation's best teams during a week-long tournament in August at Cooperstown, the Upstate mecca that houses the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The cost includes room, board and tourney fees.

The 12U team wants the Cooperstown experience as their last hurrah before they age out of the PCYBL, so they are looking for donations towards that end to be made to the PCYBL with a Cooperstown notation. Checks should be sent to the Port Chester Youth Baseball League, PCYBL Box 3, 222 Grace Church St., Port Chester, NY 10573 with the phone number (914) 939-8619 should you need further information.

Time running out

Against that backdrop, time is also running out to register for the youngest of the PCYBL kiddy leagues, the 2024 Pirate Rookie Summer/Fall program for players ages 6-8 that starts with six weeks of clinics and games beginning June 22.

That's a lot of information in one quick dose, so let's take it from the top, one step at a time, starting with the All-Star games.

    Nucleus of the PCYBL Pirates team raising funds for their last hurrah playing against nationally ranked age group teams at Cooperstown in August. Front row, from left: Juan Garcia, Louis Rytelewski, Fabio Garcia, Wesley Loizeaix. Back row, from left: Brayden Squillace, Michael Versace, Tyler Varbero, Aaron Malhotra, Alex Malhotra, Ross Kantor and Jack Louis.
 Courtesy of Stephen Rytelewski   

The Majors All-Star Game will consist of the best players drawn from the four PCYBL 10-12 age group teams: Colony Grill coached by Dan Greco; Gioffre Gents (Fabio Garcia, coach); Interactive Brokers with John Hollwedel as mentor and Rye Ridge Tile with Stephen Rytelewski as head coach.

The Minors All-Star game will be played on the adjacent field with players in the 8-10 age group chosen from the best of six teams: A&S Fine Foods coached by Rob Brenzel, B&J Concessionaires (Juan Bautista Jr, coach.), the CYP Catholic Youth Program (Brian Rieke), Morabito HVAC (Frank Nunziato), the Port Chester Fire Department (Andy Ianello) and Frank's Pizza (John Umbro).

The two divisions

The lineups will be broken down into two divisions:

The American League Major League team will include Aaron Malhotra, John Giordano, LJ Sherwood, Noah Klauck, Ben Frimiere, Luke Doherty, Robert Berlingo, Tyler Schmidt, Brayden Squillace, Juan Garcia, Jack Louis and Alexander Tamucci with the head coach John Giordano and Fabio Garcia as assistant coach. The National League squad revolves around Alex Malhotra, Tyler Varbero, Noah Sedrish, Aiden Brenzel, Nolan Brown, Derek Lovallo, Lucas Molleturo, Marco Spinelli, Fabio Garcia, Chris Povella, Louis Rytelewski and Lucas Debari with Dan Debari head coach and Jon Lovallo his assistant.

East versus West

The Minor League All-Star selections are divided into Eastern and Western Divisions. The Eastern Division includes Zachary Brenzel, Isaiah De Bella, Mateo Furcayg, Kennedy German, Ryan Hannon, Ava Ianello, Sebastian Martinez, Axel Melgar, Enzo Ochoa, Anthony Rende, Daniel Sherwood and Chase Steers. Their Western All-Star counterparts include Jayden Bautista, Charles Brigante, Adrian Fernandez, Luke Liebenstein, Luke Longo, Logan McLaughlin, Vincent Nunziato, Mason Quinn, Joey Rende, Gabriel Rieke, Mason Sabando and John Umbro.

All those names combine for a lot of PCYBL talent that will be putting on quite a baseball show over the next few days at Lyon Park. And it will be a great chance to see the future Port Chester varsity baseball Rams starting to come of age at an early stage of development, a work in progress as a high school All-Star team in the making.