Sixteen games. 106 innings. 174 hits. 149 runs. 3,748 pitches. It was a full day of action as all 16 teams at the 16U National Team Championships North Carolina played two games on Friday. The day got started early with five games across two facilities beginning at 8 a.m., just a day removed from Tropical Storm Elsa bringing over seven inches of rain to the area.
With the sun coming out early and hardly a cloud in the sky, it was like night and day from 24 hours prior. A warm day, temperatures getting up to 90 degrees, it was much more like baseball weather as opposed to Thursday’s downpours.
The players were eager to hit the field and it showed as batters attacked the plate and hits were plentiful all morning.
“I’m going to be honest, I could not sleep last night. I was up until at least 1:30,” said Jaquae Stewart from the Texas Twelve squad. But the lack of sleep didn’t seem to bother the first baseman who went 3-for-4 and drove in five runs during his team’s 17-3 win over Elite Squad.
And the action didn’t slow down after the morning slate of games as the second session of the day saw both an extra innings walk-off and a no-hitter.
After rallying from a 2-0 deficit, the Dulins Dodgers Prime found themselves knotted up at two runs apiece in the eighth inning against the Dirtbags. The rally cowboy hat worn by a member of the Texas-based team paid off when Collin Liles stepped up and hit a walk-off sacrifice fly into center to score Aidan Smith.
Meanwhile, just one field over, Kade Anderson was wrapping up a no-hitter for the East Coast Sox Franchise. The southpaw and LSU commit struck out nine Team Elite batters and gave up just two walks in the no-hit performance. He got some run support from his teammates, but not until late in the game as East Coast put up 13 runs in the shutout victory – all in the top of the sixth inning.
“I had confidence in my team. I knew they’d be able to put up runs if I just kept throwing strikes,” Anderson said after the game. The team was all business and knew what they had to do to help out their pitcher, but they wouldn’t let him know. “It was quiet in the dugout. They weren’t saying anything. We knew what was going on.”
Then, after the mid-morning slate of games wrapped up, yesterday’s weather tried to sneak back in, putting a nearly four-hour rain delay on the afternoon games. The games got done, though, and after a 14-hour day, each team has played two games heading into Saturday.
And after a day like yesterday, it was just what these teams, coaches, and families wanted. Baseball. Lots of it. And tomorrow, they’ll get to do it all again as pool play wraps up before bracket play starts on Sunday.
