The Mavericks, a solid hitting club, jumped out early with three quick runs in the top of the first. But West Raleigh answered with four in the bottom of the inning and never trailed the rest of the way, stretching the lead to 9-3 after just two innings. The 8U Blues pounded out a season-high 22 hits, getting a hit from everyone in the order for the second straight game, with 11 of the 12 players on the roster scoring at least one run.
Once again, though, it was the defense that was the difference. Blue's outfield play continued to be stellar--what we grew accustomed to as "routine" plays from the West Raleigh outfielders this weekend are considered season highlights by other teams--and the WR defense picked up two more double plays against the Mavericks, taking their season total to an impressive five double plays in four games.
The championship win meant this group collected their first trophy of the summer and first ever as this particular team. It also provided a unique photo opportunity. Since the West Raleigh 7U Blue claimed the silver bracket title with a win over the Storm, both West Raleigh squads were part of the same awards presentation. After picking up their trophies, they gathered for this joint photo:
Does that look familiar? It should, because it wasn't long ago that our group of now-8Us were the younger kids in a very similar photo. Remember? That seems like it was about two days ago. I vividly remember when that picture was taken, and thinking that the 8Us looked like giants and I doubted our kids would ever be that big. Does that mean that our kids are now the giants? OK, well, probably one of them isn't a giant (blame genetics), but they played a very impressive first weekend together.
Now the good news: they haven't even had their first full week of practice yet, or really even their first full real practice. Those begin on Monday night at 6:30 at West Raleigh.
Championship 8U Blue scoring plays
First inning
With one out, JT singled. Gavin smoked an RBI triple and scored on Chace's double. Jake's double put runners on second and third, and with two outs, Joey came through with a clutch two-RBI single that gave West Raleigh the lead.
Score after one inning: 8U Blue 4, Mavericks 3
Second inning
Ben led off with a single, and then Asher dropped a bunt that was heaved down the right field line, allowing Ben to score and Asher to roll all the way to third. Andrew collected a one-out RBI single, and then Blue added three more runs with two outs--JT, Gavin and Chace strung together three straight RBI doubles to activate the five-run rule.
Score after two innings: 8U Blue 9, Mavericks 3
Fourth inning
Another five-run inning, and what's most impressive is that 8U Blue did it without recording a single out, and they sent just seven hitters to the plate to get the five runs. Ben and Asher started it with infield singles, Carter blasted a two-run triple, and Andrew reached on a shot to shortstop that scored Carter. Bryce singled, JT drove in Andrew, and Gavin scored Bryce to send the fifth run across the plate.
Score after four innings: 8U Blue 14, Mavericks 3
Fifth inning
With one out, Jake doubled hard to right-center. Mason followed with a perfectly placed triple to right-center, then scored on Joey's single. Elias singled Joey to second, and then Ben loaded the bases with a single up the middle. Asher slapped an RBI fielder's choice to short to end the day's scoring.
Score after five innings: 8U Blue 17, Mavericks 3
Championship Web Gems
- With a runner in scoring position in the first and three Maverick runs already in, Ben made a sliding catch in shallow center for a big second out.
- In what felt like a decisive, momentum-turning play, the Mavericks were unable to capitalize on a leadoff runner in the second. With a man on first and no outs, Gavin gobbled up a grounder up the middle, stepped on second, and fired to a stretching Chace at first for the double play.
- Andrew made another highlight-reel play to end the third, this time running down a ball in left-center with two runners on.
- In maybe the play of the day, and the first third-to-first double play that I think I can remember from this particular group, the Mavericks put runners on first and second with no outs in the fourth. But the next batter hit a shot to JT at 3rd, who calmly grabbed the ball, stepped on third to get the force, and then fired all the way across the diamond to get the hitter by a couple of steps.
| Championship line score | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H |
| Mavericks | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| WR 8U Blue | 4 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 3 | X | 17 | 22 |
No comments:
Post a Comment