Junior Legion Team Takes Third at National Tourney

Gaithersburg Post 295 team went 4-2 and advanced to the semi-finals, ultimately finishing in third place in the National Amateur Baseball Federation (NABF) World Series invitational tournament, which began Thursday and concluded Sunday, in Knoxville, Tenn.

Head coach Steve Cononie said he was impressed with the team's performance, which was a marked improvement from its first appearance in the World Series last year, when it went 1-3. Cononie attributed the success to the team's willingness to work hard and put in the necessary hours of practice all summer.

The team began tournament play by winning its first three games, including a 5-4 win over the Franklin Vipers on Thursday and a 6-2 win over Clinton on Friday — both teams from the tournament's home state of Tennessee.

The opener against Franklin had to be suspended at points due to weather, though Northwest's Tony Cianci earned the win with 5 1/3 innings of work in which he struck out three batters and allowed four runs on seven hits.

Offensively, the team recorded seven hits, but it was a pair of walks that proved to be the difference. In the fifth inning, trailing by a run, Steve D'Amato drew a walk and later scored the tying run.  In the same inning, Ryan Teachum walked with the bases load to send Sean Bacchus home for what would be the game-winning run.

On Friday, following a forfeit win over a team from Toronto, the team cruised to the four-run win over Clinton thanks to a four-run first inning. Bacchus pitched a complete game, allowing two runs off seven hits and striking out three. 

After starting 3-0, the team suffered its first loss of the tournament on Saturday, falling 11-5 to the Pulaski Mariners. The team trailed 7-0 early, but showed signs of resilience with a four-run third inning that shrunk the lead to three. But the early deficit proved too much to overcome and the team dropped its first game.

The team rebounded later in the day with a 5-1 win of Bay Bridge Academy of Maryland where Banks pitched a complete game five-hitter and struck out seven.  Scott Ardoin and Joey Moeltner led the team with two hits each. 

Banks reflected on the 5-1 win and said it was one of the most memorable moments of his career.

"I'm very proud of our team and how well we played together," Banks added. "The chemistry we had on the field was unlike any other team I had played on before. The competition down there was very tough. But most of our success has to be from the way we were coached. We had been taught all year how to play at the next level, and a lot of our confidence came from the coaching staff."

The team lost 3-1 against the Maryland Monarchs -- the eventual tournament champions. Cianci threw a complete game and kept it close, but 295 scored just one run in the tightly contested match-up. It came in the bottom of the third, Chris Heckhaus laid down a bunt that scored Mike Shannon. 

Heckhaus, a Seneca Valley student, recalls the play.

"I didn’t get the squeeze sign but saw Michael Shannon, our catcher, barreling toward me at home,” Heckhaus said. “If I didn’t get the bunt down, he’d be out and I’d probably be run over."

The team had other scoring opportunities that inning but solid defense from the Monarchs kept Gaithersburg off the scoreboard.

Despite the loss in the semi-finals, Cononie said he is thrilled with the outcome of the tournament. He said watching the team come together and play hard was the most rewarding part of the experience.

"Watching those young men battle on the baseball field game after game made me so proud of them and the hard work they put in this summer. Watching the guys grow from individuals into a team of players with a common goal was what I'll remember most," Cononie said. "If you rely on one another and play as a team, the winning will soon follow. And that happened here. I hated for the season to end but I know that next year will be here before we know it."