Jackson baseball players honored
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

DAVE BENJAMIN Jackson Mayor Mark Seda (l) congratulates Jackson Little League baseball players who participated in the 2006 New Jersey State Little League baseball championships.

JACKSON - Township officials recently honored the 2006 Jackson 10-year-olds who participated in the New Jersey State Little League baseball championship.

Each young athlete received a certificate of merit from Mayor Mark Seda and the Township Council at the Jan. 23 council meeting.

The mayor thanked manager Dan Phillips and coaches George Guarino and Pete Rinaldi for their work with the boys. He recognized them for the time and effort they made on behalf of Jackson's children.

Certificates of merit were presented to players Mike Schmidt, Mitch Somers, Peter Rinaldi, Danny Phillips, Matt Navarro, Don Kane, Brandon Janofsky, Matt Guarino, Grant Grossman, Jimmy Gil, Chris Gehrsitz, Matt Bly and James Witanek.

Councilman Jason Gudaitis said, "I just wanted everyone to understand what these kids went through. In the district tournament they lost the first game to Holbrook and then strung six victories together to win the title over Beachwood, Toms River American, Lakewood, Toms River National, Brick National and Toms River National a second time."

Gudaitis said the all-stars then moved on to the state tournament.

"The team that they eventually beat for the championship, they stomped them 12-2," he said. "It wasn't even a contest. They did a phenomenal job."