The start to the tournament was sloppy but the finish was a reversal of play and resulted in a state baseball championship for the Arlington Senior Babe Ruth 14-under All-Stars
Arlington earned the crown with a 4-1 record, winning its final four games after being routed by Winchester, 14-1, in its opener. Arlington battled back, and in a rematch, blanked Winchester, 6-0, in the championship game.
The tournament was played at Barcroft Park in Arlington.
“The first game was a rough start. We had some early walks and errors, they jumped out on us and we knew we didn’t play our best,” Arlington manager Pat Baker, Jr. said. “After that, we played much better, and it was fun to come back that way. In the final against Winchester again, we stayed patient at the plate and played good defense behind Nick.”
Baker was referring to starting pitcher Nicholas Zafiropulos. The right-hander threw a complete-game shutout in the final, allowing four hits, walking two and striking out one. He also threw a shutout in a shortened four-inning 15-0 win over Vienna in the state. He allowed two hits and fanned seven.
For his effort, Zafiropulos was chosen as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“He is a control pitcher and we made the plays on defense behind him,” Baker said.
Arlington’s other wins in the seven-team tourney were against Northern Fairfax County in a close 4-3 victory and Augusta, 15-4.
William Beckett was the winning pitcher against Northern Fairfax and John Donahue against Augusta.
Northern Fairfax was Arlington’s second game and began the winning streak. Arlington scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning when William Winterling singled and eventually came home on Carter Stern’s groundout. Donahue got the save in the top of the seventh.
Top hitters for Arlington were Winterling with six hits (three triples) and six RBI, Simon Kupczyk with six hits and he scored nine runs, Jowell Gomez with six hits (two triples) and Nolan Foerster with five hits and eight RBI.
In the state final, Kupczyk had a two-run single and a one-run single, Ethan Schweer had an RBI single, and Foerster stole home.
Prior to the state tournament, Arlington won the two-team District 6 tourney by defeating Vienna by 5-4 and 11-6 scores in its only two games. Foerster singled home the winning run in the 5-4 victory when Arlington rallied from a 4-3 deficit. First, Kupczyk singled home a run to tie the score at 4.
Donahue pitched the final two frames to earn the save for Schweer. Donahue, Beckett and Foerster pitched in the 11-6 win over Vienna.
Other players for Arlington are Carson Black, Liam Hinchliffe, Matthew Harrison and Nolan Reed.
By winning the state tournament, Arlington qualified for the Southeast Regional tourney in Ocala, Fla.Al-S
