After bringing home championships in 2020 and 2021 (2022 cancelled), 2023 was not the year for the Albany Caps. Our team could not put the pitching, hitting and defense together within the same game. We played AAAA, AAA teams during the week along with the AA champion and we showed promise but could not bring home the W more than once and ended up seeding 16th against a 1 seed in the single elimination and exited the tournament early with a 4-11 loss against the DC Pirates. Our team ended the tournament with a 1-5 record.
But we did have some excitement in our losses. In game 3, we got to witness Jimmy Tesoriero give his all when we faced the previous AA champion the St. Louis Patriots. With a 2-0 lead going into the ninth inning, the thoughts of pulling him crossed my mind but he was throwing a two hitter and had only thrown about 70 pitches after 8 innings! Then the Patriots cleanly hit 4 times scoring 3 runs and we could not manage to tie in the bottom of the ninth. It was certainly a tough loss against a good opponent.
Our team consisted of: Pat Alston, Don Ball, Jim Bonaparte, Jim Bradley, Mark Callahan, Joe Careccia, Ray Coletta, John Cortese, Carlos Espada, Greg Gougler, Alex Marin, Tony Parella, Mike Surin, Jim Tesoriero, and John Weber. Our MVP was the big surprise. Tony Parella who has been slowly coming back off of an injury did a dynamic job at the plate and at first base. Parella had 12 hits batting 0.572 and Joe Careccia had 11 hits batting 0.578.
This is trip consisted of some fantastic team dinners hosted by the Jim Bradley house, the Johnny Weber house, and the Parella, Careccia, Espada house. I guess after winning the last few years, it can become a little addicting wanting that winning feeling again, but I will say that these guys made the week extremely enjoyable. The weather was perfect, the food was great, and the company and comradery of our team was even better.
