Post 180 Tops Vienna Riverdogs in Friendly Matchup

In a friendly game that pitted American Legion Baseball's Vienna Post 180 and Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League's Vienna Riverdogs against each other Thursday night at Waters Field, the young Post 180 squad came out on top with a 4-2 final score.

After three scoreless innings, Post 180 took a 1-0 lead when second baseman Chris Hanson crossed the plate on an attempted double steal. The Riverdogs pulled ahead on a sacrifice fly from Casey Turner to score Shaun Wood, and an error on a Trenton Higginbothem fly ball to center field.

But Post 180 would hold the Riverdogs at two while adding three more runs of its own — two runs on a hard-hit ground ball from Hanson that was bobbled at shortstop, and one on a Brandon Chandler double to the center field wall.

Tim Davis, Daniel Bayer, Mark Gunst and Henry Brandmark pitched two innings each for Post 180. They combined for 10 strikeouts and seven hits.

John McGillicudy pitched 5 2/3 innings for the Riverdogs, striking out five and giving up six hits.

Vienna Post 180's 17-man roster consists of 12 players who graduated high school last month, one of whom is committed to play baseball in college next year. Post 180 also has two rising college sophomores who play for their respective programs. By contrast, the Riverdogs range from rising college freshmen to seniors, all of whom play at the collegiate level. 

Six Riverdogs are former Post 180 players: Eli Facenda (Madison '11), Jay Kenyon (Madison '11), TJ Ehrsam (Madison '10), David Fathalikhani (Madison '08), Casey Turner (Madison '09) and Bret Williams (Oakton '08).