“We want the folks that run (other leagues) to look at Tiverton Baseball and say, ‘That’s a respectable league. They play it the right way. We many not always win, but we run our organization with respect.””

Jason Methia

Most baseball fans in these parts look forward to October or February, when the Red Sox pack up their trailers and head south to Fort Myers, Fla., for spring training.

Jason Methia isn’t looking that far ahead — he’s excited for fall ball, following the conclusion of the summer season for Tiverton Baseball, the town’s newest youth baseball league, which fielded teams for the first time this year.

“It was a positive overall,” said Methia, who helped found the Cal Ripken-affiliated league this past winter. “The fact that we could get such a large group together, and tried to take a different approach ... it was a really good season. There’s a ton of things we can improve on, but I thought it was a great start.”

In a town where Little League Baseball has been dominant for more than 70 years, Methia said he’s proud that 143 players signed up for the new league this past season.

Tiverton Baseball broke up play into five divisions — T-Ball, rookies, minors, majors and juniors — and played amongst themselves and against teams across the border in Massachusetts. In starting the league, Methia said he and his fellow organizers wanted to give kids solid exposure to the game’s fundamentals, and he said he was particularly proud of how the 52 players in the T-Ball and rookie divisions were coached throughout the season.

In the T-ball division, kids were put in one big group where they were taught the fundamentals and played scrimmages against their peers. In the rookie division, the league hosted four teams, with coaches pitching, and ran joint practices before breaking into teams for games.

“We wanted to teach kids across all four teams the same thing,” he said. “I think it was really positive.”

On the minor level, the league’s biggest division, 55 kids played across five teams, playing each other throughout the season. The Lambert Lawn Care Reds won the championship, beating the Sanderson Family Angels.

Majors played on a slightly bigger field and the league’s two teams partnered with the Westport Babe Ruth League to play games on Westport fields. One Tiverton majors team made it to the semifinals in Westport — a good result, Methia said, given the young age of the league. Juniors, too, played over the state line, spending much of the summer in interleague play against Southcoast towns.

The league’s all stars fared well, with three teams (nine and under, 10 and under and 12 and under). The 10s and 12s played in the state Cal Ripken tournament and Methia said “I think they were competitive and represented the league well.”

“It wasn’t about winning or losing, it was about playing the right way,” he said.

The nines were a good example of what the league was trying to accomplish this year, Methia said. Tiverton played against much larger, established teams, and finished runner-up in the regional all star tournament in Easton, Ma. at the end of June, losing in the finals to Easton.

From there, the nines went to the New England Regional Tournament, where they were the Cal Ripken-affiliated team to represent Rhode Island. Though the players didn’t win a game, they were competitive in two of the three they played, including a 4-2 loss to Newtown, which end up winning the tournament.

“Overall it was an amazing tournament,” he said.

From there, the team played in two more tournaments, one in Fairhaven and one in Rochester at the end of July, which they won.

“That was the pinnacle of the year,” Methia said. “Just seeing the kids go through the ups and downs, and working hard over the winter (then) coming into a season, where we focused on fundamentals, and then winning Rochester, was great.”

Registration for the league’s fall season is underway, and Methia said he hopes to get a strong turnout from both Tiverton kids and players from other nearby towns including Portsmouth and Bristol, who are eligible to play in the league. The signup deadline is the end of the day Monday, Aug. 14 — see www.tivertonbaseball.org. Those players who sign up for fall ball after playing in other leagues, and want to stay with the league next Spring, will receive a discount on Spring fees.

Methias takeaway on the first season: “We want the folks that run (other leagues) to look at Tiverton Baseball and say, ‘That’s a respectable league. They play it the right way. We many not always win, but we run our organization with respect.”