Add another first to the growing list of accomplishments for the Virginia Generals travel youth baseball program.

The 10U boys came back from Cooperstown this past week with their first-ever New York tournament title, winning the six-team Cooperstown All Star Village tournament with an 8-1 record.

While the Village may not be as illustrious as the tournament happening next door at Dream Park featuring scores of teams from across the country, heading out of state and returning with a trophy after topping a team from Illinois is still in indication of where the program is headed after a rocky regular season.

"It was an up and down team going into that trip and I think just everybody was able to come together and enjoy baseball, which I don't think everyone was doing in previous weeks," said manager Jon Estridge.

In order to win it all, the Generals had to top a team called the Illini after splitting two other games earlier in the tournament to the same squad and do it with three new players brought over from competing Old Dominion Baseball League teams.

Two of them, pitcher Nick Stewart and catcher Kaden Warren, came in from the western Loudoun Wildcats and ended up leading the defensive charge in a 3-0 championship victory. Stewart struck out six batters in five innings pitched while allowing two walks and two hits before Generals closer Hunter Bowman came in to turn out the lights in the final inning.

"Chemistry. That's just it," said Estridge about pairing Stewart and Warren. "They were like hand in glove working together."

Warren played more third base than catcher for team from western Prince William during the tournament. However, given that he knew Stewart going in and that he proved to be fearless throwing the ball from home to either third or first base while keeping base runners in check, he seemed like a perfect lock start the final game behind the plate.

"He's got a great arm and it was one of the things where I don't think the Illini even tried to steal on him," said Estridge.

Austin Estridge led the scoring drive for the Generals with an RBI single in the first inning, giving way to a scoreless pitching duel for the next four innings when Warren cranked a double to centerfield. The younger Estridge then came in with one out and smacked a double of his own into the right field gap to drive in the second run of the game. He then came home when Carson Arguin, a Virginia Patriot acting as the third new player on the team, clubbed the Generals' third double in four plate appearances.

"The dug out chants were rocking and rolling. So they always adds to the energy of the guys they were hitting," said Estridge.

Once Bowman entered the game in the sixth, tension built up as a pop fly ended up lost in the sun, dropped in the field of play and gave Illinois a runner on first. That turned out to be no sweat for shorstop Hunter Meade though, who cut-off a would-be single through the left side of the diamond, flipped it to Jacob Evans at second who in turn launched the ball over to Estridge at first for a game-ending, 5-4-3 double play.

"They were more restrained in the championship," said the manager. "It was almost a little bit of business as usual. And the thing was, they had build up a mutual respect."

Perhaps one of the most endearing lessons from the week was, in fact, friendships the boys established with other teams. They ended up cheering on a local team from Cooperstown from the outfield during a tight game and, in turn, they did the same for the Generals in the championship.

After the Cooperstown team lost a 2-1 game, "Our guys ran down to their dug out," Estridge said, and created a "tunnel" for the boys to run through as they collected their tournament medals. That's why, in turn, they became "our biggest cheering section," he said.

The Generals even joined the Illini for root beer and wings after the tournament and the Illini brought the Generals invited the field for a post-game prayer at the mound.

"That's a real classy team," said Estridge.