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August 12, 2009

AAABA Sidelights | Former tourney MVP makes major league debut

Wyatt Toregas, who played for Washington’s Vienna Senators in 2002, got the call that every baseball player hopes to receive.

The 26-year-old catcher was promoted from Triple-A Columbus to take the roster spot of Victor Martinez on the Cleveland Indians last Friday.

Toregas was on the Senators team that was the last one to win the AAABA national championship in Johnstown. He claimed the MVP award and was the batting champion from the 2002 tournament.

Toregas is the second member of that 2002 team to move into the majors, joining Cla Meredith, who is currently pitching with the Baltimore Orioles.

In his first major league at bat, Toregas got a hit, finishing 1-for-5 for the game and catching all 12 innings of the Indians’ 4-3 loss.

The debut was the culmination of a long trek to the majors for Toregas, a Fairfax, Va., native, whom the Indians drafted in the 24th round out of Virginia Tech in 2004.

Toregas said on the Senators Web site that it was an unbelievable feeling to finally get to the majors.

“I’ve been playing my whole life trying to get here and now I’m here,” said Toregas, who spent the entire season at Columbus prior to the promotion, batting .284 with seven home runs and 29 RBIs in 60 games for the Clippers. “It just feels good.”

•••

Long time coming: New Brunswick is the only 3-0 team in the tournament, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed in New Jersey.

“I’ve been getting calls all week that the 1988 team was the only time we sent a team out here that was undefeated going into Thursday,” New Brunswick manager Glenn Fredricks said after Wednesday’s 12-9 victory over Johnstown’s Martella’s Pharmacy.

“So now they’ve got company with these boys. They were the kings of the hill, and now it’s our job to get it to the next day undefeated after four wins, hopefully.”

Fredricks is hoping his squad can finish stronger than that 1988 team, which lost to New Orleans 3-0 and was eliminated by Washington in the next round.

So far the Matrix have relied on a powerful offense, but Fredricks has been troubled by his team’s inability to put teams away.

“We’ve been very lucky to have won three games,” he said. “If we don’t fix that and start taking care of the walks on the mound, that will come back to bite us. But at this point in the tournament, if you can stay in the top half of the bracket, and you don’t start having wars like this every day to see who goes home, it’s a good thing.”

•••

Back in town: Buffalo manager Rick Ruggiero played in the AAABA Tournament in 1985 and it was his first time back since then.

“Our team (Ken-Hy) is only three years old in our league back home,” said Ruggiero, whose team finished

1-2 after losing to Zanesville Wednesday. “Hopefully we’ll get back here next year.”

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