A big key to the success of summertime American Legion baseball teams is how quickly the players, often from different high schools and some colleges, can be efficiently molded for the short and busy season.
Teams often have very little practice together, or none, before games – four a week – begin. So it’s no surprise sometimes it can take those squads a while to gel, if at all. Plus, with the players having so many different summer commitments, lineups are rarely the same the first two or three weeks of the season.
Some teams are better than others at achieving the adjustment and molding task. Two are Arlington Post 1995 and Vienna Post 180, and that has been the case for years.
So it’s no big surprise those teams met in this summer’s District 17 tournament championship game, won by Vienna, 16-5, by rallying from an early deficit. The two have also played in previous district finals. Vienna has now won three straight championships and 10 in 13 seasons. Arlington won the 2021 titles and has finished first or second in other recent summers.
Arlington and Vienna each struggled a bit early during the 2024 campaign, then began playing their best late in the regular season and in the district tourney.
Vienna had players from five different high schools this summer, and at least one, Eli Novario, from a college team.
“It’s the same thing every season putting a team together,” nine-season Vienna manager Nick Good said. “It can take a while sometimes. We had players from five different high schools this year, so that’s a couple of more than usual for us. In the end, they made the commitment to stay together for this district tournament.”
Novario also played in the Potomac College League this summer, but said he had the most fun and success for Vienna 180.
“This team came together in the end at the right time,” said Novario, a member of the Christopher Newport University baseball team.
Arlington draws the majority of its players from the county’s three public high-school teams – Wakefield, Washington-Liberty and Yorktown. Most know each other from growing up in close proximity. In addition, the Arlington post had a couple of players from private schools this summer, along four college-age players – John Sharkey, James Pilot, Bradley Labant and Will Thompson. That made the molding more of a challenge at first.
Players on all Legion squads are used to being starters on their high-schools teams. Not all can be in the lineup at the same time during the Legion season. So that’s more of an adjustment and challenge for the managers to keep the players happy if not starting every game.
Jason Moccia took over this summer as Arlington’s manager after being an assistant coach on the team for many years. He knew the players well, and he said that significantly helped with the transition and keeping the team playing well like it has for many seasons in a row. Arlington lost its first game of the district tournament, then battled back to win four straight against higher seeds before falling in the final.
“We just fell a little short on pitching at the end,” Moccia said. “These kids got a lot of fight in them, and were a good group.”
