Post 180 Suffers First Loss in District Tourney

In the faceoff between American Legion District 17's top two teams, the No. 1-seeded Springfield Post 176 emerged victorious, forcing Vienna Post 180 to battle in the loser's bracket for a chance at the championship.

Post 176 took advantage of Post 180's errors and missteps for the 13-6 win, while Vienna struggled to put together a rally that would put them back into contention.

Defensively, Vienna had trouble closing out an inning. Twelve of Springfield's 13 runs plated with two outs, and Vienna never posted a three up, three down half inning.

Padgett started the game for Vienna and gave up four hits and five runs, four of which were unearned, in three innings. Facenda came in as middle relief, throwing three strikeouts and giving up six runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings. Ryan Corrigan and Mario Pomponio also pitched, allowing three hits and two runs.

With Post 180 short on pitchers — due to vacations or illnesses — Frank Werman, Vienna's head coach, went into the game with the plan to start Padgett and then bring in Facenda in the fourth or fifth inning to finish the game.

"The only problem with that is I had to put two guys in a position they're not used to playing to make up for our best short stop being on the mound," Werman said. "It's a gamble. We have to try something. ... And Eli's been sick, so he just ran out of gas earlier than he normally would."

Offensively, Vienna left 14 runners on base, leaving the bases loaded once and eight runners in scoring position.

"We had the opportunities, we just couldn't get the big hits when we needed them," Werman said.

Vienna scored five of its six runs in the first four innings, posting the first two runs of the game in the first inning off an RBI double from Justin Padgett. In the third inning, Vienna scored two more on an RBI single from Mario Pomponio and a sacrifice fly from Dennis Cooney. They would tie the game at five runs with a fielder's choice RBI from Eli Facenda.

Vienna Post 180 will play Fairfax Post 177, who , at 7 p.m. today at Waters Field in Vienna. The winner will move on to the championship game against Springfield Post 176. The loser will be eliminated from the tournament.

Game statistics:

Vienna Post 180

Hits: Eli Facenda (two singles), Chris Hanson (two singles), Justin Padgett (double, single), Mario Pomponio (single), Mason Hauser (single), Joe Corrigan (home run), Jay Kenyon (single)
RBI: Padgett (2), Pomponio (1), Dennis Cooney (1), Facenda (1), Corrigan (1)

Springfield Post 176

Hits: Joe Townsend (single), Nathan Slater (double, single), Dan Allen (two singles), Wes Stonelake (single, double), Alex Carrington (single), Garrett Wooddell (single), Nathan Kozlowski (two singles)
RBI: Slater (1), Stonelake (5), Allen (2), Kozlowski (1)