It was not a place Newburgh’s junior boys Little League team was used to being in.
After dominating teams to win the District 19 tournament, winning and finishing many games under the 10-run rule, Newburgh found itself on the losing side Saturday, falling to Stony Point 11-1 in six innings to start the Section 4 tournament in the Town of  Wallkill.
“Our chins are up,” said Jay Matey, Newburgh’s manager, after the loss Saturday morning.

“Fortunately, it’s double elimination.”

It was before noon, and the boys still had time to have lunch and regroup before playing later in the day. They came back and beat the District 33 champs from Westchester County 15-0 during their first game in the loser’s bracket.

And Sunday, Newburgh beat Harrison, from District 20, 5-4 to remain in the hunt for a section title and a trip to the state finals behind Dean Grinder, who pitched a complete game, collected two hits and knocked in a run.

The teams will get tougher as Newburgh tries to move, but they enjoyed a run through to District 19 title last week in Pine Bush that filled many nights with jubilation.

Tuesday, July 19, they beat Minisink Valley 13-3 after five innings, under the 10-run rule, to win the title after beating them 18-8 in the first game of the championship series.
Minisink handed Newburgh its first loss in the District 19 tournament. But from there, Newburgh just started playing and winning on all cylinders.

“We lost to them in our third game, and we ended up going from 2-0 to 2-1. And then we played some inspired baseball,” said Matey. “We realized we had an issue about being organized as a team, and we did some things to adjust that. And we’ve pretty much 10-runned every team since then.”

And once in the losers’ bracket, Newburgh would beat Florida 24-0 and Wallkill Area 8-3 before thoroughly dominating Minisink in the District 19 championship series.

“We wanted to get them in the championship,” said Pat Ortland, Newburgh’s catcher, who drove home a run with a single in the District 19 final.

By Bond Brungard
sports@tcnewspapers.com