Weekend recap: Top Gun NCAA

To make sure you are getting your money's worth from your blog subscription price, we're going to try something new, and do a weekend recap after each tournament. Sometimes it's easy to see the recaps of each game (if you missed any, they can be found here) and think, "Oh, they played pretty well." But when you see the numbers all together, you realize how truly dominant they were.

• West Raleigh outscored the opposition by a combined 64-11.
• West Raleigh outhit the opposition by a combined 77-29.
• West Raleigh had more innings in which they reached the run limit (7) than innings in which they were held scoreless (3). Blue was scoreless in just 1 out of 10 opportunities on Sunday.
• Coach Sean and Coach Kevin had an approximately 80% success rate on kicking the infield warmup balls into the air and catching them. If you have never noticed this before each defensive inning, you need to start. I was able to get a photo on Sunday.
• Every single hitter on the roster got at least one hit in each of the last three games.
• Eleven of the 12 hitters on the roster had at least one game this weekend in which they got at least two hits.
• 8U Blue hitters had six three-hit games--and all six came from different hitters. Considering that not everyone even got three at-bats in a game, that's pretty impressive.
• Every hitter on the roster drove in at least two runs and every hitter on the roster scored at least three runs. 
• Only six times was the question, "What's the score?" asked by West Raleigh 8U Blue fans. But five of those occasions were by Giovanna, so good job by everyone else.
• West Raleigh has turned five double plays in four games. Opponents have turned zero.
• Out of 23 defensive innings, the 8U Blue defense had just one frame in which they committed multiple errors.
• For the weekend, the West Raleigh defense committed eight errors, a total that will likely go down as they get more comfortable with the positions they're playing. But of those eight errors, only one scored, and two were immediately erased by a double play.
• Coach Eric pitched his first two complete games ever without having to ice the bionic arm the next day.
• After struggling to get the measure of the pitching machine in the first game, West Raleigh hitters have now gone 109 straight at-bats without striking out--all with essentially one legitimate practice opportunity to hit off the machine as a team before this tournament. And it wasn't like they were hitting soft tappers back to the pitcher, as they hit .569 in those 109 at-bats.
• Overall, 8U Blue hitters had a .550 batting average for the weekend and a slugging percentage of .714. 

Areas for improvement next weekend in Clemmons:

• Decrease the errors and have zero innings with multiple errors.
• Put the ball in play in every at-bat.
• Zero scoreless innings.
• Get more comfortable with aggressive baserunning.
• Increase funds for Coach Regan's salary since she is now also responsible for the sprayer machine.