Weekend recap: Top Gun Super State Championship

The offensive numbers from this weekend are as gaudy as the pink shirts that were handed out after the win on Sunday. As always, you can find the individual wrapups here, but here are some of the more impressive cumulative numbers from the four games in Cary:

• As a team, 8U Blue hit .722 and slugged .940. Just for the sake of comparison, they hit .560 and slugged .707 in Clemmons.
• 8U Blue had almost as many extra-base hits (27) as the four opponents had total base hits (29). 
• In Saturday's game one against the Raleigh Raptors, the Raptors had four hits as a team. Gavin, Chace and Mason each had four hits by themselves in that game.
• In Saturday's game two against the North Wake, the Daredevils had four hits as a team. Gavin, Chace and Jake each had four hits by themselves in that game.
•  Overall, 8U Blue outscored the opposition 86-14 in Cary, and outhit them 108-29. 
• West Raleigh came to bat in 22 innings, and had the maximum runs allowed in 15 of those innings (68.2%). After having eight scoreless innings in Clemmons, 8U Blue had just two in Cary.
• For the first time this summer, every hitter in the lineup had at least two hits in the Sunday game against the Western Wake Wildcats.
• Every hitter on the roster has now had at least one three-hit game this summer.
• The offensive explosion did slightly mask some occasional defensive struggles. 8U Blue committed 17 errors in the four games--a total higher than the team had committed in the entire season prior to this weekend. More thoughts on that below.
• Coach Kevin spent approximately 21 hours in the car driving to and from Syracuse, all of which were spent coming up with new ideas for his collection of pregame speeches. I was able to capture some video of his pregame talk on Sunday, which was excellent:

Here's a look at the points of emphasis from last week:

More consistent outfield play, especially on ground balls and line drives to the outfield. 8U Blue has played very well on fly balls so far and will continue to work on one-hoppers and rounding into balls in the gap.

This one still needs work, and expect to see some time spent on this in practice this week. 8U Blue made three outfield errors on Sunday alone.

Increase the team batting average from .560 in Clemmons to at least .575 in Wilmington. The plan to do this began last night at TPA, with a focus on not pulling off the ball and hitting straight through it to produce line drives rather than pop flies.

This one was mixed. Great job increasing the team batting average and rocketing past the .575 goal. Not a great job doing it in Wilmington...but I guess we can let that slide, since the actual tournament was held in Cary (no matter what the trophies said).

Decrease the errors and have zero innings with multiple errors. This is a carryover from last weekend.

There were just two innings with multiple errors, but the overall error total was too high. There are a few possible explanations for the error increase: 1. Blowout nature of the games meant a loss in focus. 2. Players are still being moved around and getting accustomed to different positions. 3. The infield was essentially a slab of concrete and produced multiple unpredictable hops. 4. 8U Blue practiced on the field just twice last week.

With that in mind, the defense still must be tightened up, because the better opponents in district play and beyond will take advantage of mistakes.

Put the ball in play in every at-bat. The big barrel bats are permanently put away now, so everyone can get comfortable with the bats they'll be using in Cal Ripken play.

Almost. It's really hard to quibble with any aspect of the offensive performance this weekend.

Zero scoreless innings.

I actually thought this one was unreachable...but they almost did it. There were just two scoreless offensive innings, both of which came against the very solid North Wake Rockets.

Some goals for the district tournament this weekend:

• Win the district tournament. None of this summer's other goals can happen without winning the district.
• Refocus on defense. Seventeen errors in four games are simply too many.  
• Stay in a groove offensively, and hit at least .650 as a team in Wake Forest.
• Make adjustments from pitch to pitch offensively. This means getting adjusted to a new machine, or to a change in the current machine. 

Practice is tonight at Ephesus from 5-7. Tuesday is an off day, and then the team will practice on Wednesday and Thursday before (likely) beginning play in the district tournament on Friday night in Wake Forest.