Around the State Recap (PG/USSSA/NCGameOn) 9/21-9/22/19

There were some big events this past weekend, including Perfect Game events for both the 11u and 12u age groups in Greensboro. The 12u Perfect Game event, in particular, featured 6 of the final top 10 teams in this age group from last year. In the end, the Rawlings Prospects made the first big statement of the fall in the 12u age group as they dominated the competition in Greensboro. Elsewhere, 11u Park Sharon Nationals - Pirro continued to add to their case as the top 11u team in North Carolina with another Perfect Game title. We also saw a number of ranked teams from last year in action and some great games all over the state. Here we recap the Perfect Game, USSSA, and NCGameOn sports action from around North Carolina this past weekend.

 

8u

5 teams battled it out in the 8u age group at the NCGameOn Sports event in Clemmons this past weekend. West Raleigh Blue and Five Star Carolina both posted two wins on Saturday, while the GBC Prospects went 1-1, with their loss coming against West Raleigh. On Sunday, however, it was the GBC Prospects who went 2-0, scoring wins over Five Star Carolina and West Raleigh. Five Star scored a 17-16 win over West Raleigh in their other game on Sunday.

 

9u

In the Greensboro USSSA event, both GBC and the Carolina Hitmen went 2-0 in pool play. The Triad Warriors went 1-1 with a win over Big Cats Baseball and a loss against GBC. In the American bracket, GRIT topped the Davidson Crush in the play-in game. In the semifinals, the Triad Warriors edged GBC 3-2 and the Hitmen notched a 5-3 win over GRIT. In the finals, the Triad Warriors topped the Hitmen 14-11 to take home the title in Greensboro. The 9u age group at the USSSA event in Oak Island featured 4 teams who finished in our final 2018-2019 8u top 20 last year, including #1 Dirtbags Black, #14 Canes Baseball NC - Hartman, #17 Lugnuts Blue, and #18 Ogden Hurricanes. Canes - Hartman was the lone undefeated team in pool play, scoring a 10-6 win over the Ogden Hurricanes and an 11-6 win over Dirtbags Black. The Dirtbags topped the Lugnuts 8-3 in their other pool play game, while the Lugnuts rolled to a 22-6 win over the Topsail Cannons in their other pool play. This left Dirtbags Black in the play-in game on Sunday. In that play-in game, Dirtbags Black blasted their way to a 17-1 win over the Cannons. In the semifinals, the Lugnuts topped the Hurricanes 11-7 and Dirtbags Black outlasted Canes - Hartman 13-1. In the finals, the Lugnuts held on for a 14-13 win over the Dirtbags to earn the 9u crown in Oak Island.

At the NCGameOn Sports event in Oxford this past weekend, last year's final #8 team, the NCDB Rivercats, went 4-0 in their way to the title, outscoring their 4 opponents a combined 61-20, including a 15-7 win over last year's #19 team, the Carolina Titans, in the finals.

 

10u

In the USSSA event in Charlotte this past weekend, Team 24 Gamecocks - Clayton (SC) went 2-0 on Saturday with wins over 5 Star Heat and Athlete's Lab - Vogel. They finished off the weekend 4-0, scoring a 10-0 win over 5 Star Heat in the semifinals and a 10-2 win over Concord Athletics in the finals on Sunday. In the 10u age group in Greensboro, last year's final #4 team, Five Star Carolina - Young, showed they are going to be right back near the top of this age group as they went 4-0 for the weekend including a 9-1 win over the Carolina Impact in the finals. For the weekend, Five Star outscored opponents 33-6.

At the NCGameOn Sports event in Asheville this past weekend, West Raleigh Blue, who finished #6 in our final rankings last year, went 2-0 in pool play with a 12-1 win over the Asheville Bears and a 10-5 win over the Summerfield Stars, who finished 10th in 2018-2019. Summerfield scored a 15-1 win over the Carolina Reds in their other pool play game on Saturday. On Sunday, West Raleigh and the Summerfield Stars both won their semifinal matchups to set up a rematch in the finals. In the finals, the Stars got their revenge with a 5-1 win over West Raleigh. 3 teams faced off in a double round-robin even at the NCGameOn Sports event in Oxford this past weekend. Both the Virginia Squires and Durham Blues - Norris finished 3-1 for the weekend, with the Squires taking the title with fewer runs allowed overall. In Clemmons, Spartans - Allen went 3-0 with a 15-0 win over the Surry Blue Claws, a 9-8 win over Pfafftown Raiders Elite, and another 9-8 win over Pfafftown Raiders Elite in the finals.

 

 

11u

At the Perfect Game Super 25 Qualifier in Greensboro this past weekend, 5 teams, all of whom finished in our 2018-2019 top 20 (#3 Park Sharon Nationals - Pirro, #4 Dirtbags Black, #5 West Raleigh Blue, #8 Five Star Carolina - Jones, #19 MVP Red) were all in the field. On Saturday, the Park Sharon Nationals went 2-0 with a 13-1 win over Five Star Carolina - Jones and a 9-1 win over Dirtbags Black. West Raleigh Blue went 1-1 on Saturday, topping Five Star - Jones 6-3 and falling 8-5 to Dirtbags Black. In the final pool play games on Sunday, West Raleigh scored a 3-2 win over Park Sharon and Five Star - Jones topped Dirtbags Black 9-5. In the finals match up between Park Sharon and West Raleigh, Park Sharon was able to take home the rematch with a 9-1 win.

Similar to the 10u age group at the USSSA event in Charlotte this past weekend, it was Team 24 who took home the title. Team 24 Gamecocks - Wilson went 2-0 in pool play and followed that up with a 6-5 win over SBA - Callahan and a 10-6 win over Mission Vipers - Reyer in the finals on Sunday. In the USSSA event in Greensboro this past weekend, 2018-2019 final #15 Summerfield Stars posted the only 2-0 record in pool play with wins over the Kernersville Cyclones and Diamond Deacons - Tierney. They notched two more wins on Sunday to finish 4-0 for the weekend and take home the 11u title.

At the NCGameOn Sports event in Asheville this past weekend, the Haywood Havoc earned the #1 seed with a 6-4 win over the Roberson RAMblers and a 12-1 win over the Hendersonville Heat. The RAMblers scored a 12-1 win over the Carolina Flash in their other pool play game. On Sunday, the RAMblers and the Havoc scored wins in their semifinal games to set up a rematch in the finals. In the rematch, the RAMblers rolled to a 12-0 win over the Havoc to finish 3-1 for the weekend. At the NCGameOn Sports event in Oxford this past weekend, D1 Performance went 0-2 on Saturday with a 9-6 loss against Durham Blues - Kelly and a 14-9 loss against Spartans Baseball - Bryant. They bounced back on Sunday, running off 3 straight wins including a 23-2 win over Rise Black, a 13-4 win over Spartans - Bryant, and a 17-3 win over Durham Blues - Kelly in the finals. In Clemmons, Carolina Rockies - Doub earned the top seed for Sunday with an 11-3 win over Carolina Red Sox - Haynes and a 13-5 win over Dirtbags Prime. Dirtbags Hold also went 2-0 on Saturday, however it was Red Sox - Haynes who ended up taking home the title on Sunday, despite going 0-2 on Saturday. On Sunday, the Red Sox started their day with an 8-3 win over Dirtbags White. They followed that with a 9-6 win over Rockies - Doub in the semifinals and a 16-4 win over the SouthWest Ripperz in the finals.

 

12u
12u Rawlings Prospects NC impressed this weekend on their way to a Perfect Game Super 25 title.

The Perfect Game Super 25 Qualifier that took place last weekend in Greensboro featured an outstanding field including 6 teams who finished in our 2018-2019 final top 10 in this age group (#2 SBA Futures, #3 Dirtbags Black, #4 Rawlings Prospects NC, #6 NCDB Rivercats, #8 Dirtbags East, and #10 West Raleigh Blue) as well as perhaps the top team in South Carolina (Charleston Revolution - Whittle). The 12 teams were divided into 4 pools with 6 teams making the championship bracket. The SBA Futures went 2-0 in Pool A with wins over Dirtbags Platinum and the Va Squires Navy. Dirtbags Black won Pool B, going 1-0-1 with a win over CBA Copperheads Red and a tie against the NCDB Rivercats. The Rivercats also made it to the championship bracket out of pool B with a 1-0-1 record as they were also able to score a win over the Copperheads in their other pool play game. West Raleigh Blue took pool C with a 2-0 record including wins over the Sandhills Stingrays and the Charleston Revolution. Sandhills made bracket play with a 1-1 record. Finally, the Rawlings Prospects won pool D, going 2-0 against 910 Select and Dirtbags East. In the #3/6 play-in game, West Raleigh Blue topped the Stingrays 9-0. In the #4/5 play-in game, the Rivercats scored a 10-4 win over Dirtbags Black in a rematch of a tie game from pool play. In the semifinals, #2 seed SBA Futures got past West Raleigh Blue 5-2 and the Rawlings Prospects rolled to a 13-0 win over NCDB. In the finals, Rawlings finished off a dominate 4-0 weekend with a 16-7 win over the SBA Futures. For the weekend, the Rawlings Prospects outscored their 4 opponents a combined 51-8.

3 teams who finished last year ranked in our top 20 (#7 Mission Vipers Gold, #12 Mission Vipers Black, and #13 SBA Nationals) were in the 7-team 12u field at the USSSA event in Charlotte last weekend. Mission Vipers Gold went 2-0 in pool play with wins over MPC and Weddington Blue Ice. The SBA Nationals were 1-1 with a loss against MPC and a win over the Blue Ice. Mission Vipers Black went 1-1 on Saturday with an 18-3 win over SBA Americans and a 7-5 loss against the Venom Stars. In the play-in games on Sunday, Mission Vipers Black topped MPC 4-3, the Venom Stars scored an 8-1 win over SBA Americans, and the SBA Nationals topped the Blue Ice 5-4. In the semifinals, Mission Vipers Gold got past Mission Vipers Black 9-2 and the Venom Stars rolled to a 10-2 win over SBA Nationals. In the finals, Mission Vipers Gold finished off an undefeated weekend with a 15-0 win over the Venom Stars. In the Greensboro USSSA event, both the Randolph Regulators and Luckies Platinum went 2-0 on Saturday. These two both won their semifinal games to set up a match up of 3-0 teams in the finals. In the finals, the Regulators came away victorious with a 10-3 win over Luckies Platinum. In the Oak Island USSSA event, the Wilmington Rays and the Coastal Cyclones both went 2-0 on Saturday. Both teams also won their semifinal games to set up a match up of undefeated teams in the finals. In the finals, the Cyclones scored a 9-4 win over the Rays to finish 4-0 for the weekend.

At the NCGameOn Sports event in Asheville this past weekend, Crusaders Baseball scored the top seed with an 8-0 win over the DC Vipers and a 9-5 win over the L-town Lightning. Crusaders went 2-0 on Sunday too with wins over Smoky Mountain Academy in the semifinals and a win over the L-town Lightning in the finals. In Clemmons, Carolina Rockies White dominated all weekend, going 4-0 and outscoring opponents a combined 51-9 across 4 games on their way to the title.

 

13u

In the 13u age group at the USSSA event in Charlotte this past weekend, 3 teams who finished in our top 20 this past year (#3 Mission Vipers Gold, #14 WNC Five Star, and #15 NC Saints) were in the field. Mission Vipers Gold and the NC Saints both went 2-0 on Saturday, while WNC Five Star finished 1-1 with their loss coming in a 1-run 11-10 loss against Mission Vipers Gold. In the semifinals, the NC Saints topped the SBA Nationals 11-6 and Mission Gold scored a 9-3 win over WNC Five Star. In the finals, Mission Vipers Gold finished off a 4-0 weekend with a 9-3 win over the NC Saints. In the 13u age group at the Greensboro USSSA event, both NCBA Silver and the Greensboro Prospects finished 2-0 in pool play, however it was TPA Nationals - Zuber who finished 1-1 on Saturday, who eventually won the championship on Sunday. After falling 6-5 against NCBA on Saturday, TPA were forced into the play-in on Sunday. They were able to rattle off 3 consecutive wins including an 18-0 win over the Summerfield Stars, a 9-7 win over the Greensboro Prospects, and a 3-1 win over NCBA Silver to complete their title run.

At the NCGameOn Sports event in Oxford this past weekend, Durham Blues - Clegg went 4-0, including wins over Triangle Sports Hawks Blue and the Alamance Royals on Saturday, and the Orange County Crushers and the Western Branch Havoc (VA) on Sunday. In Clemmons, both Carolina Rockies Gold and Big Game 2025 won their first 3 games of the weekend to each reach the finals undefeated. In the end, it was the Rockies who finished the weekend 4-0, scoring an 8-1 win over Big Game 2025 in the finals.