Orleans Outlaws capture two season opening baseball tournament titles

Contributed Photos – The Orleans Outlaws 12U team captured a tournament title in Niagara Falls.

The Orleans Outlaws 13U team claimed top honors at the Rochester Tournament.

The Orleans Outlaws kicked off the 2023 tournament baseball season with two tournament wins over the Memorial Day weekend.

The 12u and 13u teams went undefeated and compiled an 11-0-1 record overall. They battled the heat and excellent opposing teams to go 6-0 during the championship rounds Sunday.

The 12u team went to Niagara Falls and excelled with a 6-0 record, outscoring opponents 71-27.

The team mashed with a team batting average of .439, hitting a total of 13 homeruns over the weekend. Five players hit .500 or higher, including Sam Conte, Will Shultz, Mike Fedele, Brendan Merriman and Andrew D’Agostino, with Landon Feil contributing a .412 average. Noah Banks led the team with 3 home runs, with Jonathan Breese, Justyce Yapjoco, D’Agostino, Fedele, Merriman and Conte each contributing to the total.

Pitching and defense was stellar all weekend. Breese Conte, Shultz, D’Agostino, Merriman and Noah and Reed Woodruff worked together to hold teams to a .283 batting average and secure the victories on the mound. Yapjoco and Luke Hemmer caught the whole weekend, managing their staff to a 6-0 record.

The 12u team was solid all weekend beating teams from as far as Ontario Canada, Orchard Park and all greater Buffalo area teams.

Not to be outdone, the 13u team won the RHAA tournament with a 5-0-1 record.

The team battled strong Rochester area club teams outscoring opponents 59-11 with an astonishing 48 run differential over the weekend. The pitching staff allowed only 3 earned runs the whole weekend to opponents while every member of the Outlaws scored over the course of the weekend.

Offensively the team was led by Aidan Papaj, Grant Distaffen, Liam Watson, Logan Baravian, Nathan Patton and Rowlan Boyzuck, each with an average of .333 or higher with Papaj leading the way with a .692 average and 8 RBI. Boyzuck had 9 RBI and Kieran Hayes added 6, With Drew Prichard, Jordan Nucci and Luca D’Agostino scoring runs for the Outlaws.

Pitching was the highlight of the weekend with only 3 earned runs allowed. CJ D’Agostino, Papaj, Watson, Andrew Cole, Dwyer Boyzuck, and Rowlan Boyzuck pitched great all weekend with D’Agostino, Cole and Rowan Boyzuck not allowing a single earned run while they pitched. Papaj and D’Agostino combined to strike out 22 hitters during their time on the mound. Kieran Hayes managed the bulk of the catching responsibilities, guiding his pitching staff through the grueling weekend.