ALL STAR BASEBALL ACADEMY PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jon Moldoff

This week’s All Star Baseball Academy Player of the Week award goes to Jon Moldoff. Jon plays for the 11U team from West Chester. Jon is a shortstop and pitcher. He is a 6th grader at The Westtown School and also plays for East Side Little League. He is coached by Brian Rorick.

For the weekend of the 10th and 11th, Jon was 9 for 15 at the plate with 4 RBI’s. Jon led an offense that scored 49 runs in just 5 games.

“Jon just loves playing with his new team at All Star Baseball Academy,” Mrs. Moldoff said of their experience. “He just started taking lessons there, and he’s absolutely thrilled with everything he’s done there so far.”

When asked about the weekend, Jon was modest in his response, saying “It was a team effort, and we had a lot of fun.”

Coach Brian Rorick was impressed by Jon’s performance, saying “He did an excellent job with runners in scoring position. He’s a very hard worker and is very coachable, and he’s a great team player.”

Jon and the 11U team play again September 24th and 25th in the ECTB Autumn Fall Fest in Allentown, PA.

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ALL STAR BASEBALL ACADEMY TEAM OF THE WEEK: West Chester 11U

This week’s All Star Baseball Academy Team of the Week award goes to the 11U Team from West Chester. They went 4-1 the weekend of the 10th and 11th on their way to winning the Patriot Day Tournament in Aberdeen, Maryland. They are coached by Brian Rorick.

The 11U squad blew away the competition in the tournament, scoring 49 runs in 5 games. On their way to the tournament championship, they beat the Germantown Hawks 10-0, the Staten Island Legends 11-0, and the Franklin Rockets 10-0, with the lone loss being a 5-4 battle against the North Howell Bombers. In the championship game, they put up 14 runs in a 14-7 win against the Long Island Braves.

While everyone contributed to the offensive onslaught, Jon Moldoff and Adam Smith lead the charge with stellar performances. Moldoff was 9-15 for the weekend with 4 RBI, while Smith was 7-12 and chipped in 3 RBI.

The offensive performance was matched by the pitching staff, with 3 shutouts on the weekend. Pitching standouts were Jonah Frankel and Zach Cantrambone, who both threw complete game shutouts.

Coach Rorick was very pleased with his team’s performance, saying “It was our first weekend out, and I think it was exciting for the guys to come out swinging and throwing as well as we did. I was excited for the guys. We shutout 3 teams, we lost a close game and were able to win it all. I was very proud of the guys for the way we put pressure on the other team’s defense. We played very well defensively. We came out throwing strikes and swinging at quality pitches.”

The 11U Team plays again September 24th and 25th at ECTB’s In the Net Autumn Wood Bat Tournament in Allentown.

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ALL STAR BASEBALL ACADEMY RYAN HOWARD JERSEY WINNER: Matt Hennessey

All Star Baseball Academy capped off an exciting day with a special raffle prize given out by Powerade. That prize was an autographed Ryan Howard Jersey, which was won by Matt Hennessey and his family. As raffle prizes were given out all day, everyone was waiting for that last ticket to be called.

When asked about the day, Matt said “It was pretty cool that Ryan Howard talked about preparing to play, and he taught me how to mentally and physically prepare myself before the game, how to be relaxed. It was really cool that we won the jersey; we’re going to frame it and hang it up.”

His dad was just as thrilled, saying “He had a great time and enjoyed listening to Howard’s responses. Now all I have to do is decide if it’s going in Matt’s room or in the bar.”

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ALL STAR BASEBALL ACADEMY TIP OF THE WEEK

Today’s All Star Baseball Academy Tip of the Week comes to us courtesy of Mick Bigwood, a business manager and instructor for ASBA Broomall. Mick, a 4 year starter at Delaware Valley College, stressed the importance of warming up properly.

For Mick, warming up properly means Dynamic Stretching. Dynamic Stretching is defined as “a type of sports fitness routine in which momentum and active muscular effort are used to stretch and the end position is not held.”

A brief example of a dynamic stretching routine might look like this:
(note: each stretch goes down and back, 60 feet each way)
• Light jog
• High knees
• Butt kickers
• Walking lunge and twist
• Monster walks
• Walking knee hugs
• Quad Walk
• Power skips
• Shuffles
• Carioca
• Sprints (stealing a base)

Along with this routine, players can do ladder and cone drills to improve their agility.

When asked what advantage this gives players, Mick said “The more your body is warmed up, the better your arm and body will feel. Also, there is less risk of injury while playing.”

Please keep a look out for our next tip of the week. If you have any questions about a proper warm up please contact your local ASBA facility for advice.

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