Nations (Snow Hill) Championship: WR 9U Blue 19, North Wake Thunder 1

9U Blue took its second straight tournament title with a 19-1 win over the North Wake Thunder in three innings.

The story of the championship game was a massive offensive explosion in the first inning by the West Raleigh bats. There have been some big offensive innings this summer that have been produced by shaky opposing pitching and lots of walks. This was not one of those. 

This was a first inning that saw 18 hitters come to the plate, with 9U Blue cranking out 13 hits in the first inning alone. Every hitter in the order scored at least once in the first inning, including a stretch of 12 straight at-bats in which the hitter reached base and eventually scored. The 13 hits in one inning are, of course, a team record. The 13 runs in one inning are a summer record, and it marked the fourth time in the first 10 opportunities this weekend that West Raleigh batted around.

You want a crazy stat? 9U Blue recorded 19 hits in this game alone. For the entire eight-game season so far, 9U Blue has allowed opponents a total of just 15 hits.

The weekend-long offensive fireworks--in a four-game tournament, West Raleigh played the absolute minimum number of innings, which is almost unheard of--overshadowed some solid pitching. Eleven different 9U pitchers threw, and they combined to allow just two runs in six innings, but even more impressively, they also allowed just three hits in those six innings, and only eight opposing runners reached third base during the weekend. To put that into perspective, almost twice as many West Raleigh runners (15) reached third base in the first inning alone in Sunday’s title game.

Postgame was celebrated on a steamy Snow Hill field that increased approximately 20 degrees in temperature over the final two innings of the last game. Dads, who had already received some pregame snacks, were given a team photo and then sent home to fall asleep on the couch spend quality family time together.

Championship Blue scoring plays

First inning

Bryce led off with a single, then moved to second on a passed ball. With one out, Gavin singled, then took second on the throw. Chace’s single scored Bryce, and Chace took second on the throw. Banks walked, loading the bases. Brady singled home a run, then JT’s single scored a pair. Jake lined a single, and then Ben drove in two with another single. Joey ripped one to third that scored Jake, Andrew drove in a pair, and Asher drove in Andrew. Bryce’s single put runners on the corners, Elias was hit by a pitch, and Gavin drove in Asher. Chace’s single scored Bryce, and then Elias crossed the plate in the most awkward steal of home in baseball history.

Score after one-half inning: WR Blue 9U 13, North Wake 0

Second inning

JT singled and then raced all the way to third when the ball was mishandled in left. Jake’s single scored JT.

Score after one and a half innings: WR Blue 9U 14, North Wake 1

Third inning

Asher earned a leadoff walk. Bryce singled him to second, and a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position. With one out, Gavin drove in Asher. Chace walked. Banks singled home Bryce. Brady drove in Gavin. JT and Jake each smacked RBI singles.

Score after three innings: WR Blue 9U 19, North Wake 1




Pitching Performances

Banks started and allowed just one hit.

Joey threw a scoreless second.

Chace closed it out with a scoreless third, making two of the outs himself on balls back to the pitcher.

Championship Web Gems

•    Brady might a nice running catch in right field that the evil scorekeeper generously did not write down as an error (you’re welcome, Brady!)

•    Banks hosed a runner trying to steal second in the second, with JT applying the tag.

Sunday's line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
WR 9U Blue	13	1	5	X	X	X	19	19
Thunder	1	0	0	X	X	X	1	2

Nations (Snow Hill) Semifinals: West Raleigh 9U Blue 15, Morehead City 0

This blog, of course, is for breaking news surrounding the West Raleigh 9U Blue baseball team. And on Sunday in Snow Hill, there was some major, major breaking news: Chace didn’t get hit by a pitch. In either game. That means this photo is the only time he’s going to see a banana split (apparently his parents bribe him to dive in front of the ball with ice cream…whatever works) all day:

Despite Chace’s disturbing lack of ability to show off his usual talents, 9U Blue still managed to take a 15-0 win over Morehead City in three innings in the semifinals. For the second straight day against the Mavericks, three different West Raleigh pitchers combined on a three-inning no-hitter.

Meanwhile, the offense—playing as the home team for the only time this weekend—cranked out the 15 runs needed to end the game with nobody out in the bottom of the third.

That was actually the second big accomplishment of the day. The first was when the players and coaches managed to line up in less than a half-hour to take this year’s official team picture:

Semifinal Blue scoring plays

First inning

Bryce walked, stole second and scored on Gavin’s shot past shortstop. Chace’s double scored Gavin, and then Banks drove in Chace. Brady singled, and then JT’s fielder’s choice put runners at first and second. Jake singled through the infield to score Brady. With two outs, Joey blasted a two-run double. After Elias drew a walk, the runners moved up on a wild pitch. Andrew walked to load the bases, and Asher drove in a pair to complete the scoring.

Score after one inning: WR Blue 9U 8, Morehead City 0

Second inning

Gavin led off the hard way by getting hit by the pitch. He stole second and moved to third on a passed ball, where he was able to tag up and score on a pop fly to the second baseman. Brady started the offense again with a single, then scored on JT’s double. Jake’s outfield shot scored JT.

Score after two innings: WR Blue 9U 11, Morehead City 0

Third inning

Joey led off with a single. Elias walked. A passed ball moved up the runners, and then Andrew’s single drove in Joey. Asher walked, loading the bases. Bryce was hit by a pitch, scoring Elias. Gavin and Chace picked up back to back RBI singles to enact the mercy rule.

Score after three innings: WR Blue 9U 15, Morehead City 0




Pitching Performances

Asher pitched a hitless first.

JT cruised through a hitless second.

Elias closed it out with a hitless third.

Semifinal Web Gems

•    Jake, Asher and Ben teamed up to pick off an overly adventurous runner to end the first.

•    Banks made a nice play going back on a line drive over first base to make the catch and end the second.

•    With a runner on first, Banks charged what looked like a clean base hit to left, came up throwing, and threw a strike to Joey covering second to get the force.

Sunday's line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
Morehead City	0	0	0	X	X	X	0	0
WR 9U Blue	8	3	4	X	X	X	15	11

Nations (Snow Hill) Game 2: WR 9U Blue 17, Washington All Stars 1

I guess there is a possibility that you came here to read the recap of what happened in 9U Blue’s 17-1 win over the Washington All-Stars in the second game of Saturday’s tournament action in Snow Hill. And if you really need the specifics, the details are below.

But this was one of the rare times that West Raleigh didn’t play back to back games, and that left most everyone with a couple of hours to kill. And any time you give this particular cast of characters two hours of down time, hijinks are certain to occur.

When you give 9U Blue players a two-hour break from playing baseball games, you can be pretty sure they will use the time…playing baseball:

Meanwhile, GM Giovanna was very excited that the North Wake Thunder had music playing during their game. This is her showing where her daughters get all that dancing talent with a stirring performance to the DJ Khaled masterpiece “All I Do Is Win”:

While all this merriment was occurring, the coaching staff was working as hard as possible. Coach Sean practiced for his evening shift as a pizza delivery boy:

Which seemed to take a lot out of him. When other teams talk about how well paid the West Raleigh coaches are, just remember how well deserved it is. After all, here's a typical game day for the 9U Blue braintrust:

Here is Coach Kevin either taking care of a very problematic toothache or demonstrating the newest way to wear the Frogg Togg:

Here’s a shot of West Raleigh’s two biggest fashionistas demonstrating the “pockets hanging out of shorts trend” that is apparently a hot trend right now (don't feel bad, I didn't know about it either). Or at least it used to be a hot trend until people see how it looks on Coach Kevin:

All in all, a fun day in Snow Hill. And it’s still pretty cool when the kids like each other enough that when there’s a pitching change with the bases loaded, they want to go hang out together at second base while the new pitcher warms up:

Or maybe they were just talking about how crazy their parents are.

Game 2 Blue scoring plays

First inning

Bryce walked and moved to second on Elias’ single. Gavin singled to load the bases. Chace walked, scoring the game’s first run. Banks singled, scoring Eli and Gavin. Brady ripped a single that scored Banks, and then moved up to second when the ball was misplayed. Brady moved to third on a fielder’s choice and then scored on a wild pitch.

Score after one-half inning: WR Blue 9U 6, Washington 0

Second inning

The biggest inning of the season so far started with a one-out walk to Asher. Two more walks, to Bryce and Eli, loaded the bases. Then, on the very next pitch after a pitching change, Gavin took the new hurler deep over the right-center field fence for a grand slam—the first over the fence home run of the kid pitch era and the first over the fence home run in this group’s three summers of all-star play. With the bases clear, Chace (obviously) was hit by a pitch. Banks reached on a shot to first. Brady crushed an RBI double. JT collected a two-run single. Jake singled, putting runners at first and second. Andrew walked, loading the bases. With two outs, Joey and Asher drew back to back RBI walks, and then Bryce hit an RBI single before Coach Sean “mistakenly” grabbed Joey for coach interference to end the inning.

Score after one and a half innings: WR Blue 9U 16, Washington 0

Third inning

Elias led off by being hit by the pitch. Chace’s one-out single moved him to second. Everyone was safe on Brady’s grounder to short, and then JT singled in Elias.

Score after two and a half innings: WR Blue 9U 17, Washington 0




Pitching Performances

Jake pitched a hitless first.

Bryce threw a hitless second.

Gavin struck out one in the third.

Game 2 Web Gems

•    With runners on first and third in the first and two outs in the first, Asher came out firing from behind the plate and threw a rocket to Gavin, who easily slapped the tag on the runner trying to steal second before the runner from third could cross the plate.

•    Jake made a nice play staying down on a short hop at first base to get the unassisted putout leading off the second.

•    Playing second base, JT ranged up the middle with a man on first and one out. He gobbled up the grounder, took it himself to get the force at second, then made a strong throw to Jake at first to complete the inning-ending double play.

Game 2 line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
9U Blue	6	10	1	X	X	X	17	11
Washington	0	0	1	X	X	X	1	1