The Lower East Gauchos, a Super Little League team for 13- and 14-year-olds, continued its winning ways on Saturday at East River Park, where they beat the West Harlem Royals, 14-4.
Steve Pena was the winning pitcher for the Gauchos. Jonathan Gonzalez went four for four, with two doubles and two singles.
“As usual, we played great defense,” said coach Dave McWater. “We had a big inning — we had eight runs. That’s sort of our formula. In every game, we have one inning where we score more runs than the other team does in the whole game.”
McWater said the team’s defense is a key to their success.
“They’ve only made six errors so far this year,” he said. “For kids that age, it’s pretty impressive. We practiced over the winter fielding grounders in the Masaryk gym.”
The weekend before, the Gauchos beat the South Harlem Reds, 12-6, and the weekend before that they beat local rival, the Our Lady of Sorrows Titans, 19-5. So, the Gauchos’ record in the RBI League is now 3-0.
Play hasn’t started yet in the Felix Milan Little League, the Gauchos’ home league.
The Gauchos added “Lower East Side” to their team name this year, and McWater said the players are proud to wear the “LES” on their caps and uniforms.
“They really like having the Lower East Side on there,” he said.
