Seacoast Pirates Dover 14s play at historic Doubleday ahead of Cooperstown tourney
Kevin Sprague has coached a group of Dover baseball players since they were 8 years old. With all the kids now playing at the 14-year-old level, Sprague had an opportunity to fulfill a dream of taking his team, still primarily the same group of kids from six years ago, to play in a tournament in Cooperstown.
It may be two years later than expected, but the dream will be realized this weekend, and the team, Seacoast Pirates Dover, got an unexpected bonus – playing a game at historic Doubleday Field on Thursday.
“I really wanted to come here with this team and play since these guys were 8,” Sprague said.
The team was scheduled to play in a tournament in Cooperstown Dreams Park in the summer of 2021, but COVID restrictions prevented that.
So, now Sprague and the Pirates, consisting of Landon Hodgdon, Connor Sprague, Michael Gorman, Tyler Tiedge, Kaveesh Sharma, Drew Ronald, Tyler Murray, Cade Earley, Nate Deyo, Gage Brown, Declan Fitzgerld, and Evan Weete, will play in the five-day Cooperstown Baseball World tournament at nearby SUNY-Oneonta. Players and coaches will reside on campus.
“The kids get a little life of the college experience,” Sprague said.
Making difficult decision to skip Select League playoffs
The Pirates went 14-10 this season and were scheduled to start playoffs this weekend in their Select League Division I New Hampshire/Maine tournament. Seacoast Pirates Director of Baseball Scott Dubben encouraged Sprague to miss the playoffs and play in Cooperstown.
“It was an easy decision,” Dubben said. “They had this opportunity to play in this tournament in the Cooperstown area and a chance to play at Doubleday Field, it was a great experience for the team and the players. We didn’t want to take that opportunity away from them.”
The Pirates are one of eight teams in this tournament, joining three clubs from New York, one from Vermont, one from Georgia, and one from both Canada and Australia.
Pirates get to play at Doubleday Field
The coach of the Australia team, which is based in Cronulla a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, booked a time slot at Doubleday Field on Thursday, and connected with Sprague asking if the Pirates wanted to arrive a couple days prior to the tournament and play an additional game.
“We said ‘absolutely,’,” Sprague said. “You can’t turn down an opportunity to play at Doubleday. We had a lot of fun.”
The Pirates beat Cronulla, 7-6 in a nine-inning game.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these kids to play on this field, the birthplace of baseball,” Sprague said. “Most of the greats of the game have played there. It was a great day for the kids and the parents. We spent a lot of time talking with the kids today about how important playing on this field is.”
The Pirates used nine pitchers in the game, one pitching each inning.
“We have a lot of games coming up,” Sprague said. “We wanted to give as many kids the experience of pitching at Doubleday, that was our primary reason (for using nine pitchers). Secondary, we start out the tournament with five games in three days, and there’s not a lot of time to rest your pitchers. It was great for the parents to see their kids play and pitch at Doubleday. Being 14 years old, I am not 100 percent sure they get all of (the history of this), but they will at some point. They’ll look back at this, and say they were able to do something a lot of kids don’t get to do.”
Brown's double sparks ninth-inning rally for Pirates
The Pirates fell behind 6-4 in the seventh inning, but scored three runs in the ninth for the win. The key hit was Brown’s two-run, game-tying double.
“It was a solid baseball game, a very good defensive game from both sides,” Sprague said. “(The Australia team) was good, a solid, fundamentally-sound team. They made the plays. They were a decent team and played well. I give them a lot of credit for making the trip.”
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Seacoast Pirates Dover play at Doubleday ahead of Cooperstown tourney
