Officially it’s on a year-to-year loaner, yet the American Legion District 17 tournament-championship trophy continues to remain in possession of the Vienna Post 180 baseball team.
Vienna gets to keep the tall prize for another year, after the No. 2 seed won the title for the third straight summer and 10th time in 13 seasons.
Overall, Post 180 has won 21 such crowns since the event began in 1964. District rules allow that the tourney champion can keep and display the trophy until the event begins the following season.
“Our players made the commitment to win this again and we battled back from behind I think in all of our wins,” Vienna manager Nick Good said.
Vienna (19-10) finished 4-1 in the tournament, defeating No. 5-seed Arlington Post 1995 by a 16-5 score in the July 23 championship game at Waters Field in Vienna. Arlington had defeated Vienna, 9-1, in an earlier tourney game.
In the final, Arlington led 5-2 in the third inning. Vienna rallied, taking a 6-5 lead in the fifth, then exploding for 10 runs on six hits in the sixth inning.
Post 180 had 13 hits in the game, five for extra bases. Carter Tuft had three of those hits, including a three-run homer to dead center in that sixth inning.
“This was our best offensive game of the season,” Good said.
Tuft drove in six runs, also with a two-run single and walking with the bases loaded.
“I got a fastball to hit on my home run and hit it on the end of my bat. The wind helped it get out,” Tuft said. “We knew if we kept hitting we could comeback and win.”
Giacomo Jreige had four hits, including two doubles, and an RBI for Vienna, Billy Dingell had three hits (double) with four RBI, James Robinson had a two-run double, and Drew Hall (RBI) and Jacob Bradshaw had the other hits. Eli Novario had a sacrifice fly and Tuft, Hall and Ben Grimsley stole bases.
“We put a lot of pressure on other teams with our batting and that eventually takes its toll on them like it did tonight,” Novario said. “It’s been a lot of fun playing on this team.”
Left-hander Jackson Bourdeau was the starting and winning pitcher for Vienna, improving to 7-0 this summer with a 2.5 earned run average. He pitched five innings with two strikeouts and retired the final eight batters he faced.
“I was missing a little early with my control, but I made it work out later on,” said Bourdeau, who will pitch in college at Marymount University.
“Jackson has been good for us all season, one of the best we have ever had to throw here,” Good said.
Right-hander Jack Jenkins threw the final two perfect innings of relief with five strikeouts, all swinging. He and Bourdeau combined to retire the final 14 Arlington hitters in order.
“This team stayed together well as the season went on, has been an extremely resilient group and refused to quit,” Good said.
Vienna’s other tournament wins were over No. 7 seed Springfield Post 176, 5-3, in the first round; a 7-6 walkoff victory over No. 3 seed Falls Church Post 130 in game two; then 16-8 over No. 4 seed Kingstowne District 17 in the winners’-bracket final.
Jenkins fanned eight and allowed no earned runs in five innings against Falls Church, with Grimsley, Tuft and Henry Novario each having two hits. Boudreau got the win against Springfield, allowing one hit in six shutout innings. Hall, Jreige, Eli Novario and Beau Souders had key hits and Robinson added a sacrifice fly.
Against Kingstowne, Robinson had two sacrifice flies, Henry Novario and Chris Downs had two-run doubles, Tuft a two-run single and a double, Bradshaw had a hit and two RBI, Eli Novario had an RBI single and Hall and Will Thompson had RBI. Jacob Ramsey was the winning pitcher.
Bradshaw, Eli Novario, Will Emerson, Mark Sirianni and Ty Ordonez also pitched in the tournament for Vienna.
NOTES: Next for Vienna is a berth in the Legion state tournament in Chesapeake . . . Good has been Vienna’s manager for nine seasons, now with 170 wins . . . Vienna has not had a losing record since the 2005 season.
