With an 11-game winning streak, the Bishop O’Connell Knights baseball team finished the regular season very strong.
Now the postseason begins for the 20-4 high-school team as the No. 2 seed in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament, followed by the Division I private-school state tourney.
The Yorktown Patriots (8-6) split two games with their Arlington public-school neighborhood baseball rivals in recent days, defeating the Washington-Liberty Generals, 4-2, then losing to the Wakefield Warriors, 8-4.
The win over W-L was the Patriots’ 15 straight against the Generals (10-6).
Arlington Babe Ruth turns 40 this year, and there is an event scheduled to celebrate the anniversary of the junior-age baseball league for players ages 4 to 12.
The event — to be held Saturday, May 3 from 5 to 9 p.m. at Barcroft Park — also will serve as the league’s opening ceremony.
A number of former baseball players from Yorktown and Bishop O’Connell high schools had seen significant action for Division I and III college teams this spring through April 21 games.
The list from Yorktown includes James Tallon (junior pitcher, Duke University), Kyle Langley (sophomore outfielder, James Madison University), Jack Rucker (freshman pitcher, Richard Bland College), Chase Rubin (junior pitcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Ketz Murray (sophomore pitcher, Marymount University).
Reaching the milestone of 100 career wins came quickly for Marymount University head baseball coach Mike Cassidy.
Cassidy, who took the reins of the Saints’ Division III program to start the 2022 campaign, earned the century mark for victories when Marymount defeated Atlantic East Conference rival Neumann University, 22-6, Sunday (April 13) at Barcroft Park.
With varying degrees of success, the Wakefield Warriors, Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots participated in different spring-break baseball tournaments in recent days.
Yorktown (7-5) had the best record of the three high-school teams, finishing 3-2 in the competition at Patriot Park in Fairfax.
Sometimes overlooked in the crush of Arlington springtime sports is George Washington University’s home baseball season at Barcroft Park.
In a long-standing agreement with Arlington, George Washington has been playing home games at the artificial-turf Tucker Field venue at Barcroft Park since 1993.
The potential for foul weather kept some of the crowd away, but otherwise the annual Arlington Little League opening-day ceremonies went as usual on Sunday (April 5).
The afternoon event began with the traditional parade of dozens of teams through a tunnel of players from varsity high-school baseball and girls softball teams in Arlington onto field No. 1 at Barcroft Park.
In recent Liberty District high-school baseball games between Arlington rivals, the host Wakefield Warriors topped the Washington-Liberty Generals, 8-5, then the Yorktown Patriots downed visiting Wakefield, 9-3.
For Wakefield (2-4, 2-3) against W-L, Cort Bringham was the standout. On the mound, the right-hander worked 6 1/3 innings of two-hit ball (one earned run), fanned five and walked two to get the win. With the bat, Bringham had three hits, with a double, and drove in three runs.
Last year’s lack of offensive production has been turned around during the recent Washington-Liberty Generals’ winning streak.
During a three-game string, the high-school squad plated 28 runs in victories over the Marshall Statesmen by a 9-4 score, the Herndon Hornets in a 7-0 blanking and the South County Stallions in a 12-3 rout.
The Wakefield Warriors recently did something the team last accomplished in the 2021 season: winning its opening game.
Wakefield blanked the visiting Marshall Statesmen, 10-0, in that five-inning 10-run slaughter-rule high school Liberty District contest.
With an exciting dramatic victory followed by a blowout win, the host Washington-Liberty Generals defended their title in the second annual Norwood Classic baseball tournament.
Washington-Liberty finished 2-0 in the one-day, four-team event held on its home field at Quincy Park. The Generals also won last year’s inaugural event with a 2-0 record and two shutouts.
