Last spring North Arlington Little League President Javier Cruz and Vice President Ed Duffy made a decision to challenge a talented group of then 13-year-olds by playing them up at the Junior League 14U level. While the group, a year younger than its peers had a strong 2024 season, making it to the District 5 title game, the loss in the final left a bitter taste in their mouth.
Back on the Junior League level and now the same age as its competition, this group from North Arlington, many of them playing together since the 9U level, delivered another championship performance.
This time, North Arlington capped off a strong season with a District 5 title on Tuesday. It’s the latest championship for a group that as 12-year-olds in 2023 won its first District 5 LL title since 1965 and later won a 50/70 title in the Secaucus Fall League the following fall.
“All season we’ve been working hard to get here,” Cruz said. “This is all that we’ve been talking about. All spring, all winter, we’ve literally said that this is going to be our year.
“We knew we had a chip on our shoulder, that we were going to be a great team and we just had to show it on the field.”
Leading the charge for North Arlington has been a stellar one-two combination of Maverick Michalski and Noah Vargas.
“We feel like we know we’re going to win the game because these guys have been lights out on the mound for the past two years,” said Cruz. They hit their corners, they throw strikes, they listen and they’re excellent pitchers.”
Michael Faulk, Owen Alvarez and Davian Navarro have also pitched valuable innings for North Arlington during its run with Alvarez being a top reliever for the team.
Catching them is Joshua Figueroa, who according to Cruz “can do it all,” as a catcher defensively.
Jayden Beauchene plays first base, with Michalski starting at third and Vargas, who has also had a big tournament at the plate, is at shortstop.
Cruz’s son, Javier Jr. shares second base with Alvarez and Faulk. Depending on who is on the mound, all three could line up elsewhere on the infield.
Braden Duffy starts in center field and leads off for North Arlington. The left and right field spots have been split by Zachariah DeCicco, Adrian Ledesma, Aaron Santana and Navarro.
North Arlington began the Sectional Tournament on Sunday with a 10-3 victory over Fort Lee in Lodi. With the win, it advances to play Nutley in a Monday game held after The Observer’s deadlines.North Arlington Junior League 14U LL wins District 5 title.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)