Post 14 Gets Third No-Hitter in Team History, But Falls in District Tourney
July 23, 2026
• Needham Legion Baseball made it to the semifinals, before they were eliminated.
Needham Post 14 won a pair of games and made some history before falling in the District 6 semifinal round, 5-0 to undefeated and top seeded Franklin on Monday, July 20. Their 11-5 regular season record was good enough to give Needham the #5 seed in the district tournament.
In the first round, Post 14 hosted #12 Foxboro on Friday, July 17, winning a close one 5-3. Joey Saratella led the offense, getting on base three times and scoring all three times, while Alex Murdough went the distance on the mound, striking out 11 batters.
Advancing to the quarterfinal round, Needham then went to #5 Norwood on Sunday, July 19, winning 7-0 as Nick Buckley pitched the third no-hitter in team history and first in more than 20 years. The last one for Post 14 was Leo Corcoran, on July 2, 2003, a 3-1 win at Westwood and the only one before that was Josh Gershman on August 7, 1995, an 11-0 win vs. Sandwich in the state tournament at Lowell.
After their loss to Franklin on Monday, the Post 14 Twitter account shouted out Buckley, Murdough, Rowan Daly, Garrett Falahee, Jonathan Francescone, Malik Ibrahim, Brendan McHugh, George Mutrie, Kyle Nahabedian and Eli Warn, who completed their Legion eligibility. Post 14 has reached the playoffs each of the last three seasons, going undefeated two seasons ago through the regular season and District Tournament, before falling twice in the double elimination state tournament.
