The Max Sinoway 12-U Little League Majors All-Stars baseball team came into the summer season with one goal in mind: to repeat as District 4 champions. Head Coach Gregg Pugliese and his players spent a lot of time with each other throughout spring and summer baseball and wanted to come home with some hardware at the end of it all. While North Haven’s team was unable to go back-to-back as District 4 champs, Coach Pugliese’s players regrouped and came back to take the 12-U Seabreeze All-Stars title just a few weeks later.

The Sinoway 12-U All-Stars run through the District 4 Tournament came to an end in the semifinals, but the good news was that there was more to accomplish when the club opened play in the Seabreeze Tournament. With a little bit of the pressure off, Sinoway claimed the Seabreeze championship while receiving contributions from every member of its roster.

“The best thing about that tournament is that some of the guys and girls that didn’t get a huge amount of playing time in the District Tournament were huge contributors in that second tournament. It was a team effort all the way through,” Coach Pugliese said. “Honestly, nobody wanted to stop playing after the District Tournament. They wanted to keep going.”

The players who competed for Max Sinoway’s 12-U All-Stars baseball team in the District 4 Tournament were Matthew Almedia, Brandon Asprelli, Gavin Halovatch, Kyle Manfield, Arthur McCormack IV, Nora McNamara, Jack Minnix, Blake O’Connor, Hayden Pugliese, Cody Scasino, Sarthak Shah, Luca Spadacenta, and Justin Wolkovitz. Nick Goldsmith and Lucas Pannone then joined Sinoway’s roster for the Seabreeze Tournament.

This group knew what it took to win. In both 2019 and 2020, several members of the team helped Max Sinoway capture the District 4 crown as a 10-U squad. The 2019 crew also made appearance in the sectional round of the Little League World Series. Then, last year, the Sinoway 12-U All-Stars won the District 4 championship. With several titles under their belt, Sinoway’s players had the experience and knew they could compete along the best Little League programs in the District 4 ranks.

“The majority of them had been there before. We all knew how to play in the tournament,” said Pugliese. “We had the experience of previous years. We knew what it would take. We knew it would be a difficult tournament.”

Max Sinoway’s 12-U All-Stars squad posted a record of 7-0 in the pool-play portion of the District 4 Tournament from June 28 to July 9, winning every game by a convincing margin. Sinoway earned victories versus Milford

(11-0), Branford (18-3), Orange (9-0), Hamden (10-0), East Haven (13-0), Pop Smith (21-1), and Cheshire (8-2) in its pool-play games. Sinoway went on to face Orange again in the semifinal round of the tournament and took a 9-6 defeat at Sliney Field in Branford on July 11.

“We got beat in the semifinals by a very good Orange team. It was just one of those days,” Pugliese said. “We got down early. We did claw our way back and mount a comeback later in the game, but we just fell a little bit short.”

Following the District 4 Tournament, the Max Sinoway 12-U team participated in the Seabreeze All-Stars Tournament, playing four pool-play games between July 18 and

July 26. Sinoway sent 2-2 in those contests and then recorded a 4-0 victory against Westport in a semifinal matchup on July 30. That win set the stage for a championship showdown versus Berlin at Underhill Field in Milford the following day.

Max Sinoway clicked on all cylinders in the title bout, resulting in a 13-3 victory and a Seabreeze title for Coach Pugliese’s team. Pugliese said that a major emphasis on pitching and defense played a big factor in his club’s triumphant run during the tournament.

“Our big focus was on defense. In Little League, I think pitching and defense wins games. It’s really about which teams makes the least mistakes, especially when you’re up against good teams,” said Pugliese. “We spent a lot of time working on defense and focusing on the mental aspect of the game. All of these kids have the talent, and it was really about staying focused.”

The Max Sinoway 12-U All-Stars played a lot of baseball this summer, and Coach Pugliese feels that his players came into the season well-prepared based on how much they had developed over the spring. Many of the team’s players competed for North Haven’s 12-U travel team, coached by Pugliese, that played in the East Shore Travel League this spring. The team posted a .500 record while facing stiff competition and was ready to test its mettle on the summer ball circuit.

“We were playing against some of the best AAU programs in the state during the spring. We were playing up in a division where we were pushing ourselves, and I’m glad we did, because it proved to be a great challenge,” Pugliese said. “I think the kids got a lot out of it. They improved a lot. It really helped us get ready for the District Tournament.”

One of the things that Coach Pugliese loved the most about the experience was that his players demonstrated how teamwork matters most on the diamond. The 12-U All-Stars featured many talented players, but Pugliese feels that the cohesiveness of his team’s effort across that board was what helped his ballclub finish its summer on a triumphant note.

“It was different people at different times. It wasn’t the kind of team where we rely on one person or a small group of people,” said Pugliese. “That was what was great about this team. It really was a team effort from day one all the way to the end.”

After coaching this group of All-Stars for several years, Pugliese reflected upon the respective journeys of his players. As Max Sinoway added another chapter to the program’s Little League legacy, Coach Pugliese felt just as proud about the overall growth and development of his players as he did the final results.

“I’ve coached a lot of them since they were eight years old. It was a culmination of a five-year process of going from teaching them the basics of the game when they’re eight and watching them grow and develop into baseball players that really knew the game,” Pugliese said. “It’s a little sad that it’s over now, and the kids will go on to the bigger diamond. I’ll be happy to watch them wherever they go, but it was the entire process that really sticks with me.”