BY LAUREN VESPOLI | Fans of the 1979 action thriller “The Warriors” might recall the Baseball Furies — a fierce group with painted faces and New York Yankees-inspired uniforms — as one of the movie’s many gangs. Well, a new group of Furies is taking Downtown by storm: The Lady Furies, a 10-and-under softball team that will be the first girls’ squad to represent the Lower East Side in the Little League World Series, which will take place this August.
Early last Saturday morning on a field overlooking the East River, the Furies practiced hitting, throwing and running in their red-and-white game-day uniforms. Under the instruction of coaches and parents Damien Acevedo, Rey Lorenzi and Ron Ortiz, the girls practiced rounding first base and preparing to steal second.
“Be aggressive!” Acevedo encouraged a player as she sprinted toward first.
A lifelong resident of the Lower East Side, Acevedo spearheaded the team’s founding last November after meeting Lorenzi at Corlears Hook Park on Jackson and Cherry Sts. Acevedo was practicing softball with his daughter Kayla, and the two men hit it off after realizing they were both lifelong baseball players with young daughters.
In addition to Kayla and Lorenzi’s daughter Madison, Acevedo recruited 11 other 9- and 10-year-old girls to the team and began winter clinics in November.
“We’re working with these girls literally all year,” Acevedo said.
After the spring and summer competitive seasons comes fall ball and then winter clinics, he said.
“There are really only two or three weeks out of the year when they’re not playing,” he noted.
For the other 50-odd weeks, the girls are engaged in a rigorous training regimen that echoes the ferocity of their namesake.
“We make it very clear to the parents, you’ve gotta be committed,” Acevedo said.
During the spring season, the team practices three times per week, with games on Saturday and Sunday. A professional pitching coach trains five of the girls every Wednesday, and local pitching coach Annaly Gonzalez works with them one or two times per week. For cross-training, on Fridays the team attends mixed martial arts self-defense classes, taught by the New York Police Department at P.S. 142.
“It’s a three-hour workout, and another way for the girls to bond,” Acevedo said.
However, bonding seems to have come naturally to the team, none of whom had known each other previously. Outside of practice, the players and their families spend time socializing together through activities such as team barbeques and sleepovers.
“We’re really close-knit,” Acevedo said.
“They’ve had to get to know each other,” Lorenzi added. “We want them to say, ‘These are my sisters.’ ”
“I like my team because they’re really strong and nice,” said Madison. “They don’t make you feel bad if you hit an out. They’ll cheer and give you high fives.”
The Furies’ first game of the spring in the Felix Millan Little League — which holds the Lower East Side charter for the Little League World Series — is this Saturday against Yorkville.The Downtown team is ready to begin making a lasting impression in the league and begin its journey to the championship series in Portland, Oregon.
“We play to win. We want to be the face of the Lower East Side,” said Acevedo. “When people think softball, we want them to think Lady Furies.”
However, the team still needs players, noted Lorenzi, and the coaches can teach beginners over the summer, but they have to be “willing to work.”
Acevedo has come a long way with his daughters — the eldest plays in the 14-and-under league. He recalled how, initially, they didn’t think they wanted to play softball.
“I got them in a batting cage, and they changed their minds,” he said. Now, the Furies boasts 13 members excited to play year-round.
“The girls’ dedication is amazing,” Lorenzi said.
“This team is always going to be here,” chimed in Acevedo. “We’ll be representing the Lower East Side in the Little League World Series year in and year out. Next year we’ll be even better.”
