The Arlington Post 1995 summer American Legion baseball team, renamed from Post 139 for the current season, opened its 2024 campaign with a 1-1 record.
Arlington lost to Vienna Post 180 by a 3-2 score in its first game, then won 9-5 over Fairfax Post 177 in its next. Vienna is the defending District 17 tournament champion.
The Arlington team consists of mainly players from Arlington’s three public high-school baseball varsity teams and some other Arlington residents.
“On paper we can be a pretty solid team,” said Arlington first-year manager Jason Moccia, previously a longtime assistant coach with the team dating back to the 2006 season. “Hopefully we can stay healthy.”
Arlington has been one of the top teams in District 17 for a number of seasons, moving on to play in the Virginia state tournament.
In the loss to Vienna, Bryan Slattery had an RBI single for Arlington and Jack Couture started on the mound and worked five innings. John Sharkey and Alex Devens pitched in relief. Sharkey took the loss.
Vienna scored the winning run in the top of the ninth inning. Then the Arlington batters were retired in order in the bottom of the frame.
Against Fairfax, D.J. Reichert started and pitched six innings to get the win. Brothers George and Will Thompson pitched in relief.
Jackson Wiley had an RBI and four stolen bases for Arlington, Slattery had an RBI single and stole home, Sean Guffey had a sacrifice fly and an RBI single, and Couture drove in a run with a single.
Arlington was helped in the win by errors, walks and a balk.
Other players for Arlington are Bradley Labant, James Pilot, Kai Trentin, Thomas Koomey, Luke Harnishfeger, Owen Kent, Sam Jackman and Teddy Angel.
Moccia played high school baseball years ago for then Washington-Lee High School, now named Washington-Liberty. He’s the current junior varsity head coach at Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County.
Moccia said he learned a lot being a Legion assistant under the most recent former manager, Bob Romano, and previous manager and coaches Vondell Johnson and Pat and Aaron Tarr. Moccia was Romano’s top assistant the past number of seasons.
Arlington has single games scheduled June 6, 8 and 9 of this week.