Erial Little League Gears Up for Tournament

The most successful Little League in the 12-year-old division the past 10 years has been Erial's. It has won five of the last 11 District 14 championships, including four in the past five years.

The one thing eluding Erial during this time, however, has been a trip to the state tournament.

Erial's journey has ended in the Section Four tournament each of their last three tournaments. Last year's was perhaps the most heartbreaking of them all. Erial battled through a tough bracket to advance all the way to the sectional championship game against Northfield Little League.

In the end, Northfield edged out Erial 8-7 to advance to the state tournament, sending Erial home just short once again.

This year, Erial hopes to duplicate their success in the district tournament once again. A team that has some returning players from last year's championship team hopes that, after coming so close to a sectional championship last season, they can finally climb over the hump in 2011.

“We're just going to take it one game at a time,” said manager Carl Foltz. “Ultimately, our goal is to get as close to the World Series as we can."

As the defending district champions, Erial will likely have a target on their back in the eyes of the nine other teams in the tournament. Despite this, the team doesn't feel pressure entering tournament play.

“"We're just going to go out and play our game,” said Foltz. “We know we can hit, we know we got the defense and the pitching, so we're just going to go out and play our game. We know we're going to see everybody's best.”

This year's roster features the following players: Angel Crespo, Gianni D'Antonio, Anthony DiMartino, Carl Foltz, Adam Holland, Drew Loszewski, Anthony Napoli, Jason Reynolds, Cross Sarne, Sean Sigall and Jake Vespa.

The rest of the 10-team field in the District 14 tournament will certainly look to take down the defending champions from their throne. Erial's first opponent will be cross-town Glendora Little League. The game will be at 6 p.m. at .

The winner of Monday's game will get eight days off, as they will await either Runnemede, Barrington or Gloucester in their second round game on Tuesday, July 5. The loser of Monday's game will go to the loser's bracket of the tournament, where they will play the loser of Monday's Blackwood-Mt. Ephraim matchup in an elimination game on Thursday, June 30.

Fans who would like more information on Erial Little League can check out eteamz.com/erialbaseball.

For a preview of 12-and-under team, click . Check out Gloucester Township Patch on Monday for a preview of Glendora Little League's 12-and-under team.