Their overall record of 2-4 was somewhat misleading because the margins of defeat in those four losses were close for the Arlington Senior Babe Ruth age 13 baseball All-Stars in the recent 10-team World Series.
Two of the team’s losses in Glen Allen near Richmond were by two runs, another by three and one by four. Arlington finished 1-3 in pool play, then 1-1 in the playoff round, falling to Glen Allen 7-5 in its final game in a walkoff manner in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“We certainly had an opportunity to flip our record around,” Arlington manager Chris Chiuchiolo said. “In terms of talent, we were right up there with everybody. We saw very good competiton, and each game our guys got better. We just had too many little mini mistakes and errors that kept us from things going our way.”
Arlington’s playoff victory was by a 7-3 score over Greeley-Evans of Colorado. Its win in pool play was 10-6 over North Providence of Rhode Island. One of Arlington’s losses was a 4-0 shutout to runner-up Tallahassee-Leon in its first game of pool play.
Arlington also lost its second game pool-play game to Altoona, 8-6, then defeated North Providence.
In the win over Greeley-Evans, Arlington scored five first-inning runs as Luca Feden had a two-run triple, Clive Gay had a two-run single and George Cocker had a run-scoring single. Cocker had two hits and two steals in the win.
On the mound, Charlie Rotz started and pitched three innings and Gay worked the final four frames.
In the loss to Glen Allen, Jack Riordan doubled and singled, Brooks Lawson tripled, Feden had an RBI single and Ryan DiVincenzo had a hit.
Glen Allen rallied to win after there were two outs and no runners on in the bottom of the seventh inning behind four straight hits.
Lawson pitched a complete game in the loss.
“Brooks pitched his butt off,” Chiuchiolo said.
In other games, all of those previously-mentioned players had big hits in addition to Jones Tallent, Aden Heinzer, Michael Mastrangelo, Nolan Foerster and Samuel Braccia.
Players of the Game for Arlington in the World Series were Cocker, Lawson, Feden and Gay.
During pre-tournament skills events, Foerster finished third in an outfield accuracy competition.
“It was a great time and great experience for the players,” Chiuchiolo said.
Arlington qualified for the World Series by first winning district and state tournaments. By winning the state, Arlington bypassed the Southeast Region tournament and earned an automatic berth to the World Series. The berth was granted because Virginia hosted the event in Glen Allen.
When a state hosts a World Series, the state-tourney champion receives an automatic berth. Otherwise, Arlington would have had to win the region competition to earn a series berth.
Arlington entered the World Series with a 13-0 overall record during summer play.
