Cranford baseball is about to show the middle part of the country how the Cougars play ball.
Indiana, here comes Cranford!
The first Cranford Little League World Series appearance in town history will begin Saturday, Aug. 9 when the Cranford Blue 10-and-under baseball team commences competition in the Babe Ruth Cal Ripken 10-and-under Little League World Series.
Joining Cranford in the Mid-Atlantic Region in Vincennes, Ind. will be teams from Asia, Europe, Aruba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and many states from the continental USA.
Cranford actually qualified for the Mid-Atlantic Region for the first time last year, but, according to head coach Mike Snyder, opted to plan a year to participate in this year’s field.
It just turned out that Cranford qualified again this year by winning the USABL Cup Finals held in late July.
“We want to have fun, represent the town of Cranford well, compete and then see where the chips fall,” Cranford head coach Mike Snyder said.
Cranford produced an overall record of 18-4-1 for the 2025 spring/summer seasons in individual competitions.
In the United States Amateur Baseball League’s (USABL) Cup Finals at Adventure Sports in Jackson from July 29-31, Cranford went 4-0-1 to qualify again for the Mid-Atlantic Regionals. Cranford defeated the Matawan Huskies 11-3 and the CJ Rebels 10U DR team by the score of 10-5 before tying the Matawan Huskies 9-9. Cranford then beat the Clifton Colts Blue 5-3 and the Brick Bulldogs 16-1.
In the Jersey Battle All Small fields divisions competition held at all locations on June 28, Cranford was perfect at 4-0. Cranford downed Adventure Baseball Elite 12-9 and then topped the Westchester Giants Gold 6-4. Cranford then defeated the Fords Falcons 11-4 before facing the Adventure Baseball Elite team again, this time beating them by the score of 8-1.
Cranford began the spring season with a 1-1 record on March 8 in the Spring Turf Wars in Central New Jersey. Next was a 4-0 record in the Spring Blasts All Divisions competition held March 23.
Cranford went 3-2 in the April Madness All Divisions games held April 12 in Central New Jersey.
Cranford fashioned a 2-1 mark in the Memorial Day Classic All 46 60 field held May 23-26 at all locations.
In the Jersey Battle games in June Cranford averaged just over nine runs per game for the four contests it played.
In the USABL Cup Finals in July Cranford averaged 10 runs in five games.
In the spring regular season, the Cranford Blue 10-and-under squad finished first in the USABL’s nine-team American North Division with a record of 10-2. Cranford was the only team in the division to reach 10 victories.
Cranford’s infield consists of Joey Snyder at first base, Michael Yeo at second, Sinclair McDonald at third and Nate Wasielewski at shortstop.
In the outfield are Ryan Clifford in left, Tommy Polito in center and Andrew Breslin in right.
The catcher is Ryan McDonald. The pitchers are Snyder, Wasielewski and Georgie Montana.
Here are some more impressive team records from Snyder: for the whole year Cranford has a record of 44-6-1. The last three years Cranford has a combined perfect record of 42-0 in district, state and regional tournament play.
“It’s awesome,” Snyder said. “This is a baseball town and these kids have accomplished so much to add to the rich baseball history that Cranford has.”
Wasielewski leads the team in batting with a .505 average and in home runs with seven and RBI with 60. He bats third in the lineup.
Snyder, batting second in the lineup, leads the team in hits with 61. His batting average is second-best at .497.
Kulik has hit four home runs and is third on the team in batting average at .464.
Snyder also leads the team in innings pitched with 75 and strikeouts with 52. Montana has struck out 31 batters in 39 innings and Wasielewski 27 in 41.
Snyder said that Cranford, at the least, would play six games. Cranford, to start, has games scheduled for four days in a row from Aug. 9-12. Only one game per day is to be played for every team.
