Ardsley-North Hills Baseball is Perfect, Honored by Township

It’s not quite the White House, but hey ... a good team's gotta get recognized.

The Ardsley -North Hills Athletic Association’s U11 baseball team was honored at the Abington Board of Commissioner’s meeting Thursday night. The reason?

Perfection.

The team, under coach Jim McGrath, went 14-0 during the regular season — and capped off the season by defeating Abington-Roychester for the championship on June 16.

Third baseman Alex Haycock, 11, of Ardsley, said both teams played well in the championship. In fact, Abington-Roychester was 13-1 during the regular season; the loss came at the hands of Ardsley-North Hills.

“Well, it was good game and we won,” Alex said. “We were confident going in, and so were they. We played hard, and so did they.”

Third base coach Mike Burkhardt, of Ardsley, attributed the championship to the hard work the players and the parents put in during the season. Burkhardt’s son Shawn pitches and plays first base for the team.

After the team posed for photos on the lawn of the township building, they filed in to the board room, where they led the Pledge of Allegiance. Commissioner Dennis Zappone then read a commendation recognizing the team’s undefeated season; he read the name of each player, recognized the coaches and lauded the team’s spirit.

The league in which the team plays comprises 22 competitive teams.