K's Auto Repair maintained its first place hold on the Minors division with their sixth consecutive win in a hard fought 5-3 game against Nassau Chromium. K's improved their record to 8-1 and established a one game lead at the top of the Minors standings one week before the conclusion of the regular season.

K's struck first when Billy Sullivan walked with the bases loaded. K's added a similar run in the second when Brandon Hoffman was hit and scampered around the sacks, Eddie Nienstadt and TJ Winters walked to load the bases and Ruggiero's ground out to second plated the run for a 2-0 lead. On the mound, Winters was cruising before the Chromium got on the scoreboard. A walk to Bryan Strauss and a blast by speedy Alex Ward tied the game with two outs.

K's sealed the fate in the fifth. Ruggiero's presence via error and Castellana's base on balls combined with stolen bases set the table. Tough little Nicky Franzini then finished off his best game of the year. With two prevous Rey Ordonez style defensive plays at second, Franzini gave himself up with a solid shot to the right side to score the deciding run. Castellana's heads up base running before time out was called tallied insurance. Ruggiero closed down the victory, his fourth of the year, with three key innings of clutch pitching behind some great fielding decisions especially in a tense fifth inning. Both teams added a run in the sixth to make the final 5-3. Nienstadt fired a solid double and tried to score on Winters' single before getting tagged out at the plate on a great relay throw from Nassau's Alexa Vojvodic to catcher Michael Anes. Winters came around to score on Ruggiero's RBI single one batter later.

Many thanks go to Umpire Steve Franzini for his third "volunteer" assignment with the mask. His experience, desire, fairness and eloquence is greatly appreciated. In a pickle, Steve has come through with real class and grace to pitch in and help the MAA.

K's Auto Repair bounced back from a grueling first round playoff loss to collect consecutive wins versus Nassau Chromium and Mineola Florist to advance to the semi-final round of the tournament. The semi-final pits regular season co-champions Install-A-Lock and K's Auto Repair in an arch rival game. Willis Hobbies advances to the championship round to await the winner.

In their first elimination game against the Chromers, K's hit the field running. The first five pitches witnessed base hits. K's took a 7-0 advantage behind RBIs by Vin Ruggiero, Tommy Bayne, Michael Castellana, Brandon Hoffman and the first team home run of the year by Rob Raveli. The onslaught continued when TJ Winters, Mike Diglio, Ruggiero, Bayne and Castellana all plated their second runs of the game one inning later. Chromium hung tough with two runs in the second. Walks to Michael Anes and Brian Murphy scored on grounders by Conor McCann and Bryan Strauss.

K's closed it out when they batted around in the third stanza. Nicky Franzini led off with his second hit of the game and scored on a Winters double. Diglio followed with his second ribby while Ed Nienstadt's fielders choice drove him home. Brandon Hoffman had a career night with a 2 for 3, 3 RBI, three stolen base performance to set the tone for the contagious hitting of the Autos.

Next up for K's was a weekend schedule against Mineola Florist. Vin Ruggiero started for K's and pitched three flawless innings as did his mound opponent, John Hinchcliffe. His mates got him an early lead as Nicky Franzini maintained his late season hot streak by beating out a close play at first. Testing the Floral catcher, Franzini stole second and third coming home on a well struck single by Ruggiero. In the third, Franzini, once again the catalyst, singled and motored the sacks on a double to center field by TJ Winters. The inning ended suddenly on a tremendous unassisted double play by Florist first baseman Brendan Hickey to halt a potential big rally.

Florist would tie in the fourth. George Braun walked and scored on a Nick Genduso double. K's reliever Mike Castellana stunted further damage with two strikeouts.

K's then took the lead on a Mike Diglio single, two sprinting stolen bases and a textbook RBI ground out to the right side by Castellana. Florist scored the tying run.

But, with their last licks, Ed Nienstadt earned a bases loaded walk to give K's a 4-3 victory.

In their first playoff meeting, Tsontos Furs defeated Harry Katz 6 - 1. Katz's Anthony Morais led off the game with his customary single, and Daniel Fitzgerald and Fred Usma drew walks to load the bases with no outs. The Furs forced the first out at the plate on a come-backer to the mound. Harry's next hitter, Joe Spollen, singled home a run, but a perfect strike from Tsontos' centerfielder, Chris Brostek, cut down the runner at the plate for the second out. Tsontos got onto the board when Michael Vasconcelos and Chris Brostek, got on base and and Brostek stole home. Brian W. Greene banged home Peter Clark. The Furs added a pair of runs in the second when Carl Nunziata reached on a walk, T. J. Gessner doubled, and Michael Vasconcelos singled. Further damage from the Furs was prevented when Terry Mooney made a pair of great catches at shortstop. The Furs chipped in one more run on singles by Paul Easton and Michael Brady, but Harry's hurler, Ryan Pratt, struck out the next six batters. Other highlights of the game were flawless Furs fielding from Kevin Brostek, David Easton, and E. J. Lopresti and solid defense from Katz's Johnny Englis, Kris Lorusso, and Robbie DiBella.

Mick Oswald put two monster shots over the fence leading the charge for the Chamber of Commerce which advanced them to the Major Division Championship Finals.

The Knights of Columbus opened the scoring in the top of the first inning. Jameson Canning singled and stole second. Michael Marques hit a shot off the glove of Chambers second basemen into right field and Canning scored easily on the play putting the Knights up 1 - 0. With Matt Dadich at the plate, Marques would score on a bang - bang play. Tommy Flynn delivered a pitch that got away from Chambers catcher Robert Maloney and Marques scored.

However, the Chambers team came out fighting in the bottom of the first. Michael Grieco, who has been red hot in his last three games, led off with a single. Robert Maloney proceeding to single to right field setting up Oswald's first bomb of the evening. On a 2 - 1 count, Oswald ripped a shot the over the left field fence to put the Chamber into the lead by the score of 3 - 2. Danny Vojvodic continued on his torrid hitting streak by lacing a single up the middle. Vojvodic would eventually score when Tom Flynn hit a slow roller back to the mound that was mishandled by the Knights first basemen bringing the score to 4 - 2.

It was in the bottom of the fifth when the power show continued. Robert Maloney, who was three for three on the night, led off with a single to right field, once again bringing Oswald, who hit his second homerun of the game to give Chamber a 6-2 win.

The South team, comprised of representatives from Harry Katz, Knights of Columbus, and Barron Body Works took on the team from North, which included players from Mineola Chamber, Tsontos Furs and Total Security Systems.

South opened the scoring when Kevin Tiseo and Anthony Morais singled home Chris Orlando and Steven Keeler. The North came back though when Robert Maloney singled home Mike Vasconcelos.

In the second inning, the South brought 10 men to the plate including Daniel Fitzgerald (walk), Jimmy Murtha (single), John Englis (walk), Mike Lacava (walk), Allan Silit (walk) Terry Moony (double), and Chris Orlando (single) to plate five runs.

In the fifth, Mick Oswald singled, Kurt Hetzer walked and Mike Brady walked. Oswald stole home and Hetzer and Brady came around to score on passed balls. The South scored one more in the sixth on singles by Steve Keeler, Joe Spollen and Jamison Canning.

The North scored one in the sixth on singles by Andrew Shear and Danny Vojvodic. The final out was recorded with a nice batch in left field by Mike Lacava.

Congratulations to all the all-stars, especially the ones that played their last Little League All-Star game. They are: Robert Maloney, Mick Oswald, Kurt Hetzer, Jonathan Hock, Brian Greene, Peter Dwyer, Peter Clark, Mattheus Faiz, Robert Steimel, Chris Orlando, Steven Keeler, Jameson Canning, Kevin Tiseo, Mark Dadich, Ed Proctor, Mike Marques and Allen Silit.