Top Gun World Series Qualifier Championship: 919 Nationals 10U 5, Mavericks 11U 2

Let’s just all admit right now that in no possible way is this blog entry going to convey the insanity that occurred at the ECAP on field 5 between the hours of 1 and 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

The ultimate outcome was that the 10U 919 Nationals earned the 11U tournament title with a 5-2 win over the Mavericks. But that really would be like saying Sunni Sky is a place you can get cold food.

For the second straight game, the Nationals had to play from behind. The hot-hitting Mavericks, who had outscored the competition 36-7 in their first three games of the tournament, plated two runs in the bottom of the first.

But then…nothing. The 919 pitchers handcuffed the Mavericks and allowed just one baserunner—one baserunner!—after the second inning. That baserunner was promptly picked off first base, meaning the Mavericks sent the minimum number of hitters to the plate in the final four innings. Oh, and did we mention that Nationals pitchers did not walk any batters in the six-inning game and walked just one in the 12 innings of bracket play?

In other words, the Mavericks might have been feeling a little frustrated by the terrific work they were seeing on the mound. That eventually boiled over in an eventful fourth inning. To fully appreciate this inning, you have to understand that Chace was playing with a neon green cast on his left hand. That’s very important—it was neon green and had been neon green for the entire day.

Suddenly, however, it was determined that the green cast was “distracting,” and need to be wrapped in order to avoid Chace being called out. Coach Fred just happened to have a wrap on his bionic knee, proving once and for all that you can find pretty much anything in the 919 rooting section at any given time. Luckily, it was able to cover up that dastardly neon green cast, which was far more distracting than the calm earth tones of the bats generally used in the 10U and 11U world these days.

Once Chace was wrapped, he just so happened to be coming to the plate with the bases loaded, with the Nats holding a 3-2 lead. He took the first pitch for a strike, then took a couple of balls. With the count even at 2-2, he fouled off a pair of pitches, leading the careful observer to believe he just might be getting the measure of the Mavericks pitcher. And indeed he was, as the one-handedlollygagger laced a two-run single that provided some very welcome breathing room.

The 15 minutes following Chace’s hit are probably not going to go into the Personal Maturity Highlight Reel of very many adults who were in and around field 5. The only possible positive is that no one got called a “huckleberry” this time, although a few other creative words were used. The most composed and mature individuals on hand turned out to be the dozen 9- and 10-year-olds wearing the navy 919 uniforms. They barely blinked, and proceeded to play two more flawless defensive innings on the way to the title.

The Nationals celebrated playing up for an 11U title with a championship selfie:

Championship Nationals scoring plays

Third inning

Asher singled and moved to second on Joey's walk. Ben’s shot to third wasn’t picked up cleanly, scoring Asher with the first 919 run of the day.

Score after two and a half innings: Mavericks 2, 919 Nationals 1

Fourth inning

Lawson coaxed a leadoff walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Gavin reached on a ball past third. Lawson and Gavin pulled off a double steal. Banks worked a one-out walk that loaded the bases, and then a balk scored Lawson. With two outs, Gavin sprinted home on a throwing error by the catcher and scored on a fantastic slide around the tag.

Score after three and a half innings: 919 Nationals 3, Mavericks 2

Fifth inning

Asher led off with a single. Joey walked. Ben went through third once again to load the bases, and then Chace turned in the at-bat of the fall so far this year with a one-handed two-run single.

Score after four and a half innings: 919 Nationals 5, Mavericks 2

Pitching Performances

Elias started and worked through the dangerous top of the order.

Gavin cruised through 2.1 innings and allowed just one runner into scoring position.

Asher threw a hitless 1.2 innings.

Lawson closed it with a perfect sixth.

Championship Web Gems

• While pitching in the second, Gavin raced over and made a running catch of a pop fly near the first-base line.
• Nice scoop by Banks—on a weekend when 919 first basemen made a habit of making great pick-ups—of a low throw against the leadoff man in the third. Banks also made a nice short hop snag in the fifth.
• While playing catcher, Ben threw behind a runner at first in the fourth. The runner broke for second, but Banks quickly relayed the throw to Lawson, who tagged him for the second out.
• Great job by Andrew backing up his teammate in the outfield in the fifth. With two outs and nobody on, he backed up Eli and then threw a dart to Gavin covering second to retire the overeager runner who was trying to take an extra base.

·       

Championship line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
919 Nationals	0	0	1	2	2	0	5	7
Mavericks 11U	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	5

Top Gun World Series Qualifier Semifinals: 919 Nationals 10U 4, NSA Warhawks 11U 3

As a group, the team currently known as the 10U 919 Nationals have done quite a bit. They’ve won three state titles, a pair of southeast regional titles, and so many Top Gun championships that I’ve lost count. That’s not bragging—it’s just to give you some context on this next statement.

After 919 took a 4-3 walk-off win over the NSA Warhawks in Sunday’s semifinals of the Top Gun 11U tournament in Goldsboro, Coach Sean gathered the players and coaches down the left field line. “That,” he told the group, “was one of the best.”

And it was. The game was a rematch of Saturday’s pool play game, but was a much better played affair. It also featured one of the weirdest stats in 919 history, as the Nats were outhit 11-2, yet somehow found a way to win the game. The Warhawk starter was actually spinning a no-hitter through four innings, and of the four 919 runs, two scored on ground outs, one came across on a passed ball, and the final heart-pounding run crossed the plate when Gavin legged out an infield single in the bottom of the sixth. And stop me if this sounds familiar: three of the four runs in the game scored with two outs, meaning nine of the last 11 Nat runs have scored with two down.

The second-seeded Nationals combined the opportunistic offense with great pitching. Under the direction of Coach Kevin, 919 pitchers walked just one in six innings, while NSA walked six and hit another. Minimizing the baserunners (and occasionally just casually picking them off when they reached) meant that even when the Warhawks smacked a hit, it didn’t lead to a big inning.

The win moved the 919 “little kids” into the 11U championship game against the top-seeded Mavericks...a blog suitably recapping that game will probably need to be in eight installments with a video component on the Lifetime Network.

Semifinal Nationals scoring plays

First inning

Bryce walked, stole second and third, and scored on a fielder’s choice from Gavin.

Score after one inning: 919 Nationals 1, Warhawks 0

Fifth inning

Banks led off with a single and took second when the pitcher made a throwing error on a pickoff move. He went to third on a wild pitch. Andrew walked and stole second. JT drove in Banks with a fielder’s choice, and then Andrew scored on a passed ball.

Score after two innings: 919 Nationals 3, Warhawks 3

Sixth inning

Bryce drew a two-out walk. He went to second on a wild pitch and stole third. After Lawson walked and stole second, Gavin slapped it to shortstop and hustled it out, setting off a suitably enthusiastic walk-off mob on the field.

Score after six innings: 919 Nationals 4, Warhawks 3

Pitching Performances

Banks started and went three terrific innings.

Bryce threw over an inning and buzzed through the middle of the order.

Asher closed it out with two scoreless innings.

Semifinal Web Gems

• Lefties continued to demonstrate some ridiculous pickoff moves, as Banks picked off the leadoff man in the first. Brady came up to receive the throw and fired to Bryce to get the out at second.
• Chace “The One-Armed Bandit” came up throwing on a would-be single to right in the second and threw a laser to Brady at first to get the out.
• Chalk up another pickoff for Banks in the third, but by now that is more routine than web gem-worthy.
• And yet another roundabout pickoff in the fifth. This time Asher was pitching with runners on the corners. He went with the pickoff move to first, where somehow the obviously wise runner made it back in time. But Brady had other plans, and came up throwing from first to get the runner breaking from third. Brady tossed to Joey covering the plate, who made the tag to get the out.

Semifinal line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
NSA Warhawks	0	1	0	1	1	0	3	11
919 Nationals	1	0	0	0	2	1	4	2

Top Gun World Series Qualifier Game 2: 919 Nationals 7, New Bern Flames 0

Now that looked a little more like the 919 Nationals we know so well, as four pitchers combined on a shutout and the Nats took a 7-0 win over the New Bern Flames 11U in the second game of pool play.

Two-out runs were the story for the offense. Six of the seven runs scored with two down, including all three in a big three-run second that gave 919 all the momentum. Nine different hitters reached base and seven different batters had a hit as the Nationals looked much better at the plate in their second game against 11U competition.

Unfortunately, Coach Sean had to leave early. Without him there to police the length of the postgame meeting, the first warning sign came when Coach Bruce said, “I’ve got my postgame speech written in my phone.” An hour and a half later, just as he said, “And in conclusion…” Lawson had started shaving and it was time to take BP for the first game of bracket play.

The game time for tomorrow will officially be announced later today but will almost certainly be 9 a.m.

Game 2 Nationals scoring plays

First inning

Lawson reached on a one-out error, stole second and third, and scored on a fielder’s choice from Banks.

Score after one inning: 919 Nationals 1, New Bern 0

Second inning

With two outs, the combination of four straight singles from Elias, Joey, Asher and Bryce plus some aggressive baserunning (three stolen bases) plated three runs.

Score after two innings: 919 Nationals 4, New Bern 0

Fourth inning

Brady led off with a single and stole second. He moved to third when a throw from the outfield skipped away, then scored on a wild pitch. Elias walked, stole second, and scored on Asher’s two-out single.

Score after four innings: 919 Nationals 6, New Bern 0

Fifth inning

Gavin worked a one-out walk and stole second and third because Coach Sean was in the parking lot with the engine running. He scored on Andrew’s single.

Score after five innings: 919 Nationals 7, New Bern 0

Pitching Performances

Lawson allowed just one hit in two innings.

Bryce threw a hitless third and fanned two.

Joey threw two scoreless frames.

Phil Brady closed it with a scoreless sixth.

Game 2 Web Gems

• With a runner on first and one out in the second, Gavin fielded a grounder up the middle, went smoothly across the bag and threw to Brady to complete the inning-ending 6-3 double play.
•  Bryce ran all the way into foul territory from the pitcher’s mound to snag a pop foul in the third.
• New Bern tried to be aggressive in the third, attempting to score from second on a single to center. But Eli relayed it to Lawson, who fired to Asher blocking the plate for the tag and the collision.
• Brady unleashed a nasty pickoff move on a very sad runner in the sixth. Banks caught the throw, then fired to Lawson covering second to apply the tag.
• Asher threw off the mask and hustled back to the fence to record the second out of the sixth on a foul pop.

Game 2 line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
New Bern Flames	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
919 Nationals	1	3	0	2	1	X	7	8

Top Gun World Series Qualifier Game 1: NSA Warhawks 11U 7, 919 Nationals 4

The 919 Nationals traveled to Goldsboro for their first-ever 11U tournament and looked totally overmatched. But enough about the first inning.

Multiple defensive breakdowns spotted the NSA Warhawks a five-run first. The Nats played solid baseball after that, but the early five-run deficit was too much to overcome, and NSA took a 7-4 victory in the first game of pool play.

With a variety of fall activities going on, 919 was joined by Lawson Wheeler to fill out the roster. He spent most of his time wondering why everyone in the 10U dugout was so insane, including such very astute questions as, “If his name is Brady, why does everyone call him Phil?”

There wasn’t much time to think about the defeat, because the second game of pool play was coming up right away.

Game 1 Nationals scoring plays

First inning

Bryce singled and stole second and third. He scored on Gavin’s double. Lawson singled home Gavin.

Score after one inning: Warhawks 5, 919 Nationals 2

Second inning

Joey and Asher put together back to back singles, then stole third and second, respectively. Gavin cracked a two-out, two-run double.

Score after two innings: Warhawks 7, 919 Nationals 4

Pitching Performances

Andrew worked through some defensive issues in the first.

Asher threw two strong innings.

Gavin threw two hitless innings.

Lawson closed it out with a hitless sixth.

Game 1 Web Gems

• With a runner on second in the third, Gavin fielded a grounder up the middle while navigating around the runner, then threw to first to get the out.
• Brady made a great scoop on a low throw on the very next hitter.
• Brady ran over and made a nice catch of a foul ball near the fence in the fourth.
• Brady—wait a second, did he do everything?—made another nice scoop on a low throw to get an out in the sixth.

Game 1 line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
NSA Warhawks	5	2	0	0	0	0	7	5
919 Nationals	2	2	0	0	0	0	4	7