The Angels, a fifth grade CYO travel baseball club, captured the Nassau County CYO Championship. The club features players from Roslyn and Manhasset, and is sponsored by St. Paul's parish.

The Angels ended the regular season with a 6-3 record, qualifying for the playoffs in fourth place. They faced the undefeated first-place club from Our Lady of Mercy in the first round of the playoffs. The two clubs had played a tense 3-2 game in the regular season. The playoff game was played under the lights at Syosset-Woodbury Park on Wednesday, June 21.

Brain Giesecke, the Angels' outstanding starting pitcher, pitched a complete seven-inning gem, striking out 10, giving up only seven hits and four walks to the potent Mercy offense. He was aided by outstanding defensive play.

The visiting Angels loaded the bases in the first inning with three consecutive singles from Stephen Colalillo, Michael Napolitano and Dominick Maimone. However, they went on to score only one run on Geisecke's walk. In the bottom of the first inning, the first Mercy batter pounded the ball to right field, but tried to stretch the hit into a double. RF Randy Bogen fired the ball to second base where SS David Brody applied the tag for the out. The third Mercy batter repeated the scenario, except to center field where CF Napolitano found Brody for the tag at second base to end the inning.

After a quiet second inning the Angels opened the third with the top of the order. With runners on base Matthew Liebhaber and Geisecke hit RBI singles to expand the lead to 3-0. Mercy was again quiet in the third. Catchers Chris Sikora and Steve Cucharo led off with singles in the fourth but were left stranded. Mercy applied pressure in the bottom of the fourth, scoring 2 runs before 1B Michael Levy caught a foul fly to end the inning. The Angels, with a 3-2 lead, responded with 3 more runs in the top of the fifth. Napolitano blasted a leadoff double. Maimone followed with a walk. Clean-up batter Kyle Gans blasted a double driving in Napolitano. Maimone and Gans each stole home to expand the lead to 6-2.

Mercy threatened in the sixth when the lead-off batter reached on a walk. The threat was extinguished when Sikora threw out the runner trying to steal third base. Mercy threatened again in the seventh inning scoring two runs and sending the tying run to bat before Colalillo squeezed a long fly ball for the last out. Final Score: Angels 6, Mercy 4.

The Angels' opponent for the championship game was St. Ignatius, who had finished the regular season in second place losing only to Mercy. The game was played on a warm and breezy field in Merrick, Saturday June 24. In contrast to the game against Mercy, the Angels never had a lead until the final play of the game. Ignatius opened with five runs in the first three innings. The Angels remained composed despite the 5-0 deficit and erupted for three runs in the bottom of the third. Levy walked to start the rally and, with two outs, Colalillo singled. Napolitano singled driving in Levy. Colalillo stole home. Maimone walked. Gans singled, driving in Napolitano for the third run.

The Angels pitching once again came to the fore. Napolitano came on in relief in the first inning. He struck out eight batters in two and two thirds innings. The runs in the second and third were given up on errors as the normally-adroit Angel defense faltered. Geisecke entered in the fourth inning to close the game. He gave up no runs and no hits in four innings, fanning seven and allowing two walks. He was assisted by an unusual double play in the fifth. The lead-off batter walked and stole second base. The next batter struck out. The third batter hammered a sharp grounder up the first base line. First basemen Levy knocked the ball down behind first base, falling to the ground. He picked up the ball and stretched, bringing the ball into contact with the base while lying on the ground. Meanwhile, the runner from second rounded third and was steaming toward home. Levy threw a perfect strike to Sikora who was alertly blocking the plate. He made the tag for the third out.

The Angels tied the score at five with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Geisecke doubled and scored on Liebhaber's hard shot through the shortstop. Liebhaber stole home for the tying run. Only a miraculous catch by Ignatius' shortstop on a liner by second baseman Alex Litt with two aboard kept Ignatius in the game with the score tied at five after four innings.

After scoreless fifth and sixth innings, David Brody strode to the plate to start the bottom of the seventh. He was awarded first base after being struck in the back by a pitch. He stole second on a close play. He stole third on a passed ball. When the ball got past the catcher again he sprinted home, executing a perfect slide across the front of the plate to avoid the desperate tag of the catcher approaching from the back. Final score: Angels 6, Ignatius 5.

The Angels are managed by Tom Maimone with the assistance of Coaches Scott Levy, Marty Litt, Gary Bogen, Steve Brody and Dino Colalillo.