Softball Leagues Already Jockeying for Postseason
It’s a few weeks into the regular season, and already top-ranked teams in all three Capitol Hill softball leagues are carefully weighing the competition. In other words, jockeying for the postseason has begun in earnest.
In the Senate Softball League, defending champions Well Swung are off to a strong start. The team — which won last year’s Senate championship and the joint House-Senate King of the Hill tourney — is undefeated this season, with six wins.
In a Monday night game, Well Swung topped Division 1 rivals Missourah, 28-11, handing the No. 2-ranked team its first defeat of the season.
According to Well Swung captain Nick Falvo, the defending champs are taking it one step at a time — but with one eye on what’s happening in the rival House Softball League.
“You never know what’s going to come out of the House side. We have a lot of friends who are on some of the good teams on the House side. You always have to look at the teams,” Falvo said, naming the Big Lebowskis, Potomac Fever, Texas Republic and other teams as potential threats in the postseason House-Senate championship. “Really, anything can happen.”
Other Senate league teams off to a strong start this season include the Mississippi Mudcats and Hawk ‘n’ Dove, which were both undefeated and in first place in their respective divisions as of Monday.
In the House league, a number of teams are having strong seasons. The DGS sit on top of the standings, with a 9-0 record, but Potomac Fever and the Big Lebowskis are not far behind.
DGS coach and House Softball League Commissioner Anthony Reed is cautious, however, about DGS’ postseason chances.
“Given that we were the No. 1 seed in the tournament [last year] and we lost our first game, we don’t look at anything lightly,” he said.
According to Adam Weinstein of the Big Lebowskis, it’s the “same old faces at the top of the league, for the most part.” His team is 10-1 and in third place in the rankings.
“This year I think we are finally poised to make a run. We just didn’t have a tourney pitcher [last year] and the guys want to drink and swing away. The best tourney teams work walks,” Weinstein said. “I think we have a lot of talent [and] we might finally make a run.”
In the Congressional Softball League, a surprise expansion team has emerged at the top of the rankings. In a crowded field of 97 teams, the Brookland Sluggers are enjoying some unexpected beginner’s luck, with a perfect record of 12-0.
“The season is going great so far,” team captain Joseph Schettino said.
“The history of our team is actually very short. We are a group of very close friends who went to Catholic University and [live] in the wonderful Brookland community. We’ve always seen teams playing softball in the previous summers that we’ve been in D.C. and I swore one day we would get a team together,” Schettino said in an e-mail. “We finally got enough people together for a team, and we’ve actually acquired more of our friends to play because they heard how much fun we were having. And I guess if you had to put a number on it, we’ve been playing together for around two months.”
“I personally don’t think we are in a position to dispute another team’s preeminence or superiority simply due to the fact that we’ve only been in the league for 2 months. However we do take note of the other top teams in the league as forces to be reckoned with,” Schettino wrote.
Regular season play wraps up in the next few weeks. The joint House-Senate championship is scheduled for late September, while the Congressional league tourney begins in late August.
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