Young baseball players take championship for Riverhead

The 13-and-under Riverhead Waves Baseball Club capped a tremendous summer with a 10-8 victory over Hub 44 Riptides 13 in the Town of Brookhaven that earned them the championship title. 

After losing the first game of the summer in a close contest, the Waves ripped off 18 straight wins en route to the title. Their record in all of 2025, playing in leagues and tournaments, currently stands at 25-2. Riverhead baseball is alive and well.

In the championship game, the Waves were tested early. They fell behind 4-0 in the top of the first inning and faced a deficit many teams would have trouble coming back from. But the Waves instantly fought back and answered with four runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning to tie the game.

“Nothing brings this team down,” said Brian Miller, president of the organization. “They don’t do this because a coach is there with a whistle. They do it because they are close friends who have been playing together since they were 8 years old. They have each other’s backs and they don’t really care who gets the spotlight on any given day. They’ve been through so much together that not much fazes them at this point.”

The Waves took the lead in the bottom of the second inning and tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the third to keep the momentum going their way. Though the Riptides were able to score four runs in the fifth inning, the Waves were able to hold them off the rest of the game to hoist the trophy. 

“Winning the league proves to the kids that all the work we did in our program works,” Miller said. “We are working to develop the things that we feel are important for the long term. Accomplishing goals like this act like checkpoints letting everyone know we’re on a good course.”

Travis Cote led the way for the Waves with two hits, including a double and two RBIs. Trey Edwards cranked a triple and collected three RBIs. Michael Zambriski, Chase Kwasna and Connor Miller all delivered hits in the victory. 

Miller and Cote have been mashing the ball all summer—they both have hit over .400. But it hasn’t been just them, either. Seven other players have hit near or over .300 this season, including Zambriski, Kwasna, Tye Marelli, Edwards, Tyler Chattaway, Jonah Greenwald and Jason Hubbard. Cote led the team in RBIs, with 21 this season, but Marelli and Edwards weren’t too far behind, with 18 each. 

Marelli and Chattaway both posted sub-3.0 ERAs on the season, asserting themselves as two of the aces on the staff.

Stats are stats, but every single member of this team impacted the season one way or another.

“We really raised the bar on the boys this year,” Miller said. “Their season begins in January with winter workouts and we asked them to commit to training three days a week as well as weight training and performance training with our partners at Ignite Fitness in Riverhead. The boys showed up and put in the work because they knew that 13u and moving to the full-sized field would bring new competition and challenges. All the families shared in that commitment. Nobody likes driving out to Yaphank in January or February to get these kids working. But when you start to see the results, it’s all worth it.”

With all the success at varsity level last year and the core of the team very young, this group going up will undoubtedly help them take the next step in a year or two. At the end of the day it’s simple: hard work pays off.