FLORENCE, Ala.—Bryan Fox, the head coach of the Stamford Stars 12-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars, could have been in a few other places on Tuesday afternoon.
Maybe beating the Alabama heat by zooming around a lake on a jet ski. Maybe visiting Tuscaloosa to see Bryant-Denny Stadium, the home of the University of Alabama football team, something the former Trinity Catholic football coach would have enjoyed.
Instead, Fox was back at his hotel room with his team, who are taking this trip to the deep south quite seriously as they take part in the 2025 Babe Ruth 12-and-Under World Series.
Stamford completed pool play on Wednesday, falling to Puerto Rico, giving them a 2-2 record heading into Thursday’s elimination play.
The team will be back at Thursday, facing the same Puerto Rico team that posted a 12-6 in over the Stars the day before. Game time is 12 p.m.
When asked what type of team he had taken to Alabama, Fox replied, “We finished our game at 10:30 in the morning (a 2-1 loss to South Bend, Ind., on Tuesday) and came back to the room, and the girls were just begging to go to the batting cages. It’s a sad wrap-up, in a way. These girls have been playing together since they were 8 years old and this is the end of the line for them playing together.”
In the future, some of the players will play at Stamford High, others at Westhill. Maybe a couple might go the private school route, too.
Right now, however, the Stars are focused on finishing this run as strongly as they can, and the good news as it heads into bracket play is the team is finally back to being completely whole.
Right before the BRWS, an injury left Carly Capuno, the team’s shortstop and perhaps its best overall player, with a fractured wrist.
She collided with teammate Maddie Aldrich as both players aggressively chased down an infield pop-up.
“Maddie got stitches and Carly got x-rays,” Fox said.
Capuno finally got back in the line-up on Wednesday against Puerto Rico, but leading up to today Fox was mixing and matching his line-up as best he could to fill the hole.
“The fact we won two games here without her was awesome,” Fox said. “We had people playing shortstop who had never played there before but this speaks a lot to what this team is about. It’s where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?”
Things start in the circle for Stamford and the Stars do have a legit No. 1 in pitcher Kylie O’Melia, who went from being a hard-thrower as a 10-year-old when she led her team to the state title, to a multi-pitch pitcher with the ability to hit spots this summer.
“She was throwing it by people at 10, changing speeds and hitting spots at 11 and now she has three different pitches, including a change up and a drop, and she throws every pitch to a spot,” Fox said.
Capuno is normally Stamford’s second pitcher, but in her absence, Emma Fox stepped up and saw some innings, as well.
Usually, Fox is behind the plate as the Stars’ starting catcher. Gianna Zezima and Ashna Patil are the back-up backstops for Stamford, too.
When they’re not behind the plate, Zezima is at first base while Patil holds things down across the diamond at third.
Jaquelyn Farson, who is usually a back-up first baseman, filled in admirably at shortstop while Capuno was out while at second base a trio of players—Emma Avalos, Aldrich, and Lucy Cassidy—have all seen time there.
In the outfield, Cate Guinta is strong in center field and flanked by Reese Vomacka and Ann Mullins. Both Vomacka and Mullins can also play as back-ups at third base when needed.
The Stars have flexibility all over the field, that’s for sure.
“I don’t know how to qualify us, but I think we’re certainly defense-first,” Fox said. “We want to be able to catch the ball when they hit it.”
Offensively, though, the Stars can score some runs and it can happen in a hurry.
Once during a travel tournament at FastPitch Nation in Windsor, and again during the New England Regional tournament, Stamford came from behind to walk-off an opponent in the bottom of the sixth.
“You feel like you’re never out of the game,” Fox said.
Ever since March, though, the Stamford Stars have challenged themselves against the best.
While all are city residents who come out of the Stamford Babe Ruth House League, the All-Star squad also put together a vicious travel-based schedule to match up against some of the top programs in the Northeast.
The week before heading to Florence, the team played in a four-day travel tourney at FastPitch, going 5-2 against some strong Northeast competition.
All told, the team has posted a 37-15-1 record since March.
“We wanted to win states and win regionals and when we were coming down (to Alabama) I wanted to get a feel for what everybody else was thinking,” Fox said. “I didn’t want to make it about winning a trophy. I wanted it to be about memories, but they’re locked in. We’re not going to see Alabama. I think they’re focused on trying to win this thing.”
Both the Stamford Stars 8U and 10U squads also won state and regional titles, but for a variety reasons, ranging from logistics to injuries, those squads were unable to attend their respective World Series events.
As such, these Stars, playing their final year together, are representing their city and state on the big Babe Ruth stage.
They might be missing out on the sights and sounds of Alabama in the summer, but that’s just fine by them. There are more games to play together and that’s what really counts.
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