YOUTH BASEBALL: NICHOLS-TIOGA LITTLE LEAGUE RETURNS TO DIAMOND WITH BIT OF A TWIST (2020-07-02)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Valley Sports Report
NICHOLS - Dust off home plate. Baseball has returned to Kirby Park as Nichols-Tioga Little League opened its 2020 season with a Major division game here Wednesday.

The team coached by Gabe Sindoni won the inaugural contest, 12-9, but the score didn't seem to matter as much as the fact the kids had an opportunity to swing their bats, field a few ball and run the bases.

"It's great to have the kids out there and just seeing them playing," NTLL President Ryan Bombard said. "Even though it's not ideal, it still brings a little bit of normalcy and it's just great to see the kids out there, having some fun, being around their buddies and competing."

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, normal is anything but - and league officials realize that heading into the season, which will last until Aug. 2.

"We're kind of tinkering with the format," Bombard said. "Gabe split up the teams this time. We might do this for like two games and we've come up with some different ideas."

NTLL has several 12-year-olds, so the league is looking at options like having the 12s play a game against the younger players as well as the 12s picking teams for a game.

"We're trying to make it fun for them," Bombard said. "We're trying to find that balance because we still want them to learn, because we take everything we do at Nichols-Tioga Little League is trying to prep them for the next level. "

Tioga Central has enjoyed success on the diamond in recent years. The Tigers have been to the state playoffs three times since 2015.

"We've always talked about the work we're doing here is because we want to see Tioga compete for a state title, but it's like finding the balance of, hey let's make this fun, let's make it unique," Bombard said. "It's a unique situation, obviously, so let's have some fun with it, but still try to get the kids to compete."

When NTLL began looking at the possibility of playing ball this summer, it was met with strong support form the community. There are 18 players in each of the Major and Machine-Pitch divisions, and 16 in the Minor division. While these divisions are currently the focus of the league, the T-ball and Coach-Pitch divisions have not been left out, according to Bombard.

The league will hold games for the Major, Minor and Machine-Pitch divisions while making other plans to help the Coach-Pitch and T-ball players continue to improve their baseball skills.

"We were just playing it by ear," Bombard said. "We were starting with the older kids just to see how everything went, but our plan is kind of do clinics."

An example he gave is T-ball Day, "where everybody who wants to bring their kids, we'll split them up and we'll do some drills, we'll have some fun, and maybe play a game or two. And we'll do that where we'll have a couple of set days where it won't be like a season and we'll have specific teams. That way, there's no pressure on families too. It's like hey, we're doing this on this day. If you want to bring your kids out, we'd love to have them. Here's what we're doing to make sure they stay safe and healthy, but if you don't want to bring your kids, that's totally fine too."

A large number of parents are ready to have their children, who have been restricted by COVID-19 since mid-March, get out of the house, become more active and participate in some activities with their fellow youth.

"We actually got a ton of support from all the parents," Bombard said. "When we first started we weren't sure what to expect. The guidelines have all changed in a short amount of time, from when we even reached out to everybody. Even the few people who didn't want to have their kids playing because of the health reasons was because they had a unique situation and they even said, hey, even though our kid's not playing we applaud you for doing this."

Then there's the simple fact that it's baseball season.

"The parents want to see their kids out doing something, and being active, and also, maybe I'm biased, but in Nichols-Tioga there's something about Little League season. The parents sometimes like being at the field on a nice summer night, watching the kids play baseball almost as much as they want the kids playing.

"It sounds cliche, but I think it's great that it's bringing some semblance of normalcy to everybody."

Sindoni referred to the season as "sandlot style" where the players and coaches will rotate among teams. It's a twist from the typical youth baseball season, but in an unusual year, it only makes sense to mix things up a bit.

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IN PHOTO 1: Jacob Belles. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.