The Orioles and Giants shaking hands at game's end. The Babylon Little League's Boys majors division is heating up with the weather. All six teams have played over half their games, and the division is the closest and most competitive in years. Every Saturday at 1 p.m. the teams are in action on beautiful Locust South Field where there are no "bad hops" to be had on the new field. As of Memorial Day Weekend, the standings are extremely close as the top five teams are separated by two games in the standings.

The Pirates have won two of their last three games played. Nick Crawford is one of the strongest pitchers in the league. They have gotten excellent all-around play from Ryan Matthews and Russell Griesmer. The Pirates have played much-improved ball as the season has progressed. Mathew and John Visgauss, Justin Benoit and James Meyerberg have all made defensive contributions. John Botto, Ricky Lindsey and Robert Sweet have gotten big hits to lead the Pirate offense.

The Giants have played excellent baseball all year and have one of the best offenses in the league. Four times they have scored over 10 runs in a game. They have gotten excellent pitching from Tommy McHugh, Pete Donaldson, Henry Brunjes and Steven Schweitzer. Chris and Brandon Gardner, Brian Lavin, Matt Desiderio and Nick Squillante have worked tremendously hard at practice and all contributed to the team. Ralph Rodriguez Swine flu and Chris Martino have contributed greatly to the big offense of the Giants.

The Cardinals have been playing great baseball all season, and with strong pitching and defense, have given up the fewest runs in the league. A deep pitching staff of Liam Young, Colton Craft, James Hanley, Kevin Blau and Spencer Howard had been the Cardinals' strength. Daniel Barkan and Sean McCabe had big defensive games in a victory over the Pirates. Joe Marrone had the big catch of the game in the Cardinals opening day win. Drew Christiansen had a great game at the plate in a win over the A's earlier in the year. DJ Fraccalvieri and Doug Incandela have both contributed to the Cardinals excellent defense.

TheA's are a young majors team and continues to play better each game. TheA's have been getting key pitching and hitting from Carlson, Carmody, Dillon Kelly and Jon Werlick. The fielding play of Cole Amdur, Connor Brown, John Costanzo, Dillon Dell'Erba, Drew Helling, Jack Peplinski and Nick Vella continues to provide solid defense along with timely hits. Recent wins over the Pirates and Reds have the A's right in the heat of the race in the division.

The Reds started out winning four of their first five games of the year and have a terrific squad this year. In the opening game of the year, excellent pitching from Stephen Cavalieri and a strong closing performance by James Marron led the way. Strong defensive plays in the field by David Martens and Corey Harberg were key. Other notable plays were made by Breck Walters. Matthew Stark and Nick Ruotolo. Strong hitting from Johnny Navarro, Matt Stark, Cory Harberg, Breck Walters and Ralph Gonzalez accounted for the runs by the Reds. Jack Faccibene leads the offense for the Reds and is also a top all-around player in the division. Manager Gary Stark has a very hard-working team.

TheOrioles are currently in first place by the slimmest of margins, just one half game. They have recently been on a winning streak playing all-around good baseball. Spencer Meyerson has been terrific on the mound with two complete games so far. Chris Dewey, Joey Savastano and Owen McCaffrey have been terrific with excellent pitching and offense as well. Ross Lapides has been a force on offense along with Brian McCaffrey. TJ Rigelhaupt has had an exellent all around year and has been terrific on defense, especially at catcher. John Larsen, Riley Moran, Frankie Trapani and Shawn Tripp have been excellent on defense and have had many clutch hits. Coach Rich Meyerson is very pleased with the team's improvement as the season has gone on, especially from the younger players.

Overall this has been one of the most balanced years ever for the Babylon majors. Thecaliber of play has been outstanding and continues to improve as the season progresses. For much more information go to WWW. BABYLONLITTLELEAGUE.ORG.