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Sports

Play Ball: Mayor's Cup Challenge Tonight

The Babylon boys' varsity baseball team will play the Amityville varsity baseball team in the first annual Mayor's Cup Challenge tonight at Farmingdale State's University Stadium.

Nick Giampietro, whose son plays on the Babylon junior varsity baseball team, had an idea last fall while watching a Panthers varsity football game being played under the lights one Friday evening.

"It got me thinking, there are so many people here and so much interest in the game, how do we get something together like this together for the kids who play baseball?," he said. "I looked into what it would take to get some lights for the baseball field, but it was too expensive and our field is not conducive to using them, but fortunately we found an alternative."

Giampietro, along with other parents of both the junior varsity and varsity players,  were able to secure the state-of-the-art Farmingdale State University Stadium, which will host the first ever Mayor's Cup Challenge tonight as Babylon plays Amityville at 7:30 p.m.

"We have been reaching out to anyone interested in baseball, with the main reason for getting this thing going twofold; to get more interest out of the village for the varsity baseball team and to help secure some funds for the baseball programs equipment costs. A lot of schoolbudgets have been cut dramatically and a lot of parents like myself felt we should try and step up and help fill some of those gaps."

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Mayors Ralph Scordino of Babylon and Peter Imbert of Amityville will both be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for their respective teams and the stipulations are, the losing team’s Mayor buys the winning team a pizza dinner. There will also be a special Mayor’s Cup trophy presented to the winning team after the game and the cup will stay in the victor’s possession for the duration of the season.

"I think the Mayor’s Cup is a great opportunity for our baseball team to showcase their talent at a state-of-the-art FieldTurf facility under the lights and our kids are excited,” said Babylon Athletic Director Mike DeJoseph.

“It’s hard to predict how many spectators will show up to support our team, but it’s going to be a great night, hopefully your coverage will help promote the event and encourage people to show up and root for our boys. Coach Sparacio has worked closely with several community members to make this event possible and Mayor Scordino has shown great support. We also want to thank Michael Harrington and the athletic department at SUNY Farmingdale for the opportunity to play at their facility."

Find out what's happening in Babylon Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Giampietro added, "I think it's going to be a great game and everyone's going to have a really good time. We have a lot of local merchants both in the village and in Amityville who have donated prizes at different levels, whether its baseball equipment, free horseback riding lessons or dinner packages. And those are just some of our random door prizes. We're also going to be selling raffle tickets for itmes such as  four tickets to a Yankees game in a luxury suite as well as a Mets ticket package and a Robinson Cano signed batting glove. All of the proceeds are going to the Babylon and Amityville baseball programs."

For information on directions check out the Babylon Little League website.

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