Tournament schedule makers are well aware that you should never, ever give the Nationals a break in-between pool play games. When the Nats have time to kill, shenanigans like this ensue:
No, I have absolutely no idea what they're doing. Clearly a lot of forethought went into it, because the weight distribution with Chace on top and Asher on the bottom is pure genius.
After the two-hour break, play resumed with a matchup against the Blue Sox, a rematch of the Myrtle Beach title game. In that game, 919 used runs in every inning to eventually pile up a 10-run margin. This time, however, they did it largely with one big inning, as an eight-run bottom of the second brought the Nats back from an early 3-0 deficit and sent them on the way to a 12-4 win in a game shortened to five innings by the run rule.
The offense, as usual, will get most of the attention. Playing with just ten hitters in the order, and only nine two-armed hitters in the order, 919 had nine different players reach base and nine different players score a run. This time, though, it wasn't really the booming bats that pushed runs across. In fact, the Nationals had just four hits in the game, with the biggest blow a bases-clearing triple from Gavin. But Blue Sox pitchers walked nine, plus threw four wild pitches, and patient Nat hitters took advantage.
The unsung storyline of Saturday's pool play will be the 919 defense, which committed just one error in ten innings. That included solid work from the Nationals catchers, who combined allowed just three stolen bases in the ten innings of play, an impressive total in 10U baseball (for comparison, the Nationals stole a dozen bases on the day).
Following the win, Coach Bruce gave a speech that involved something about breaking (no one was quite sure following the speech if he said "breaking" or "drinking," because either really would've made sense) a bottle of wine, and then the team hustled off to Coach Bruce's house, where the realtor in charge of his listing cringed at the thoughts of what the ramifications might be of multiple hours with the 919 team on the loose in the home. This shot was taken late on Saturday night as Coach Bruce consoled Jennifer.
Bracket play begins Saturday at a time TBD.
After the two-hour break, play resumed with a matchup against the Blue Sox, a rematch of the Myrtle Beach title game. In that game, 919 used runs in every inning to eventually pile up a 10-run margin. This time, however, they did it largely with one big inning, as an eight-run bottom of the second brought the Nats back from an early 3-0 deficit and sent them on the way to a 12-4 win in a game shortened to five innings by the run rule.
The offense, as usual, will get most of the attention. Playing with just ten hitters in the order, and only nine two-armed hitters in the order, 919 had nine different players reach base and nine different players score a run. This time, though, it wasn't really the booming bats that pushed runs across. In fact, the Nationals had just four hits in the game, with the biggest blow a bases-clearing triple from Gavin. But Blue Sox pitchers walked nine, plus threw four wild pitches, and patient Nat hitters took advantage.
The unsung storyline of Saturday's pool play will be the 919 defense, which committed just one error in ten innings. That included solid work from the Nationals catchers, who combined allowed just three stolen bases in the ten innings of play, an impressive total in 10U baseball (for comparison, the Nationals stole a dozen bases on the day).
Following the win, Coach Bruce gave a speech that involved something about breaking (no one was quite sure following the speech if he said "breaking" or "drinking," because either really would've made sense) a bottle of wine, and then the team hustled off to Coach Bruce's house, where the realtor in charge of his listing cringed at the thoughts of what the ramifications might be of multiple hours with the 919 team on the loose in the home. This shot was taken late on Saturday night as Coach Bruce consoled Jennifer.
Bracket play begins Saturday at a time TBD.
Game 2 Nationals scoring plays
Second inning
Andrew worked a one-out walk and stole second. He tagged up and went to third on Joey's fly ball, meaning 919 had a runner on third with two outs and none in. That's when the excitement began. And by "excitement," I mean four walks in a row, as Elias, Asher, Chace and Brady all drew walks, forcing in Andrew. Eli scored on a wild pitch. Bryce lined an RBI single, plating Asher. Chace scored on a wild pitch. With the bases loaded, Gavin ripped a shot to deep left-center that either went under the fence or against the fence, depending on whether you were playing left field or center field. The end result: all three runners scored, and Gavin was awarded home on the very rare "interference by the center fielder" call.
Score after two innings: 919 Nationals 8, Blue Sox 3
Third inning
With one out, Joey and Elias walked. Asher hammered an RBI single and took second when the ball was misplayed in center. Brady collected a two-out, two-run single.
Score after two innings: 919 Nationals 11, Blue Sox 3
Fourth inning
JT drew a leadoff walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Gavin's shot through the left side of the infield.
Score after three and a half innings: 919 Nationals 12, Blue Sox 3
Pitching Performances
Ben never allowed the ball out of the infield in the first.
Bryce worked two very good innings, including a 1-2-3 third.
Gavin closed it out with two innings of one-hit pitching.
Bryce worked two very good innings, including a 1-2-3 third.
Gavin closed it out with two innings of one-hit pitching.
Game 2 Web Gems
- Bryce made a nice play to hustle over from his pitcher position and grab a pop fly on the third base line in the third.
- Elias made a very solid play against the leadoff man in the fifth. The hitter smacked what could've been a double in the gap, but Eli cut it off in right-center and held him to a single.
Game 2 line score
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
R
|
H
|
Blue Sox
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
X
|
4
|
3
|
919 Nationals
|
0
|
8
|
3
|
1
|
X
|
X
|
12
|
4
|
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