The Perfect Game Baseball Association (PGBA) Charlotte Invitational was this past weekend in Pineville. The field featured 8 teams, including 5 of the top 10 and 7 of the top 12 teams in the state of North Carolina. Needless to say the field was absolutely loaded and there were some exciting games and finishes. Here we recap the weekend in Pineville.
Friday
Two games took place on Friday night. In game 1, #8 Mission Vipers Gold faced off against #12 SBA Canes - Erwin. Canes - Erwin scored 5 runs in the first two innings and was up 5-2 heading to the bottom of the inning. However in the bottom of the inning, Mission Gold exploded for 13 runs and held on for a 16-5 win. In game 2, #1 SBA Canes - Ross faced off against #11 Carolina Athletics. Canes - Ross got started early scoring 5 in the first inning and 5 in the second on their way to a 10-2 win over the Athletics.
Saturday
6 games were played on Saturday. In game 1, #6 Canes Baseball NC - Simpson took on #2 Carolina Blue Sox. In a tightly contested defensive battle, Canes - Simpson scored the first run of the game in the top of the 5th. The Blue Sox answered back with a run of their own in the bottom of the 5th and followed that up with a run in the bottom of the 6th to take a 2-1 win over Canes - Simpson. In game 2, the Blue Sox faced off against Canes - Erwin. In another tight game, the Blue Sox got out to a 6-2 lead midway through the third and held on for a 10-7 win over Canes - Erwin. In game 3, Canes - Simpson and Mission Vipers Gold faced off. This was another well played game in which Canes - Simpson broke open a scoreless game with 3 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning. They surrendered two runs in the top of the 6th, but held on for a 3-2 win. In game 4, the Carolina Athletics matched up against Carolina Blue Mizuno. Carolina Blue struck first taking a 1-0 lead through two innings, however the Athletics added two runs in the 3rd, 3 in the 4th, and 5 in the 5th to take a 10-1 win over Carolina Blue Mizuno. Game 5 on Saturday featured a match up #1 SBA Canes - Ross and #3 Five Star Carolina - Neyra. Five Star was able to get out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back, taking an 8-1 win over Canes - Ross. In the final game on Saturday, Five Star - Neyra took on Carolina Blue Mizuno. In this one, Carolina Blue got out to a 4-0 lead through two innings, and Five Star never got going and fell 4-1 to Carolina Blue.
Sunday
In pool play on Sunday, the Blue Sox took on Mission Vipers Gold in game 1. In another defensive battle, the Blue Sox came away with a 2-1 win and finish 3-0 in pool play, which secured their spot in the finals. In the second pool play game of the day, Canes - Simpson took on Canes - Erwin. In this one, Canes - Erwin took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the 6th inning. Canes - Simpson loaded up the bases and appears to have won this one on a walk-off grand slam, scoring a 6-3 win over Canes - Erwin and finishing 2-1 in pool play. Canes - Erwin dropped to 0-3 in pool play with the loss. With the Blue Sox at 3-0 in the same pool, Canes - Simpson did not reach the finals. In the third pool play game on Sunday, Five Star - Neyra went head-to-head with the Carolina Athletics. Five Star took control early and never looked back scoring a 14-3 win over the Athletics, and secured their spot in the finals. In the final pool play game of the day, SBA Canes - Ross took on Carolina Blue Mizuno, but was out of the running for a championship game spot already having loss their head-to-head match up with Five Star - Neyra. Neverthelesss, Canes - Ross performed well going up 8-0 through two innings on their way to a 10-3 win over Carolina Blue Mizuno.
In the finals, #2 Carolina Blue Sox faced off against #3 Five Star Carolina - Neyra. Five Star stared with three runs in the first, and two in the 2nd inning, but the Blue Sox answered with 5 runs of their own in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Each team added a run in the 5th inning and the game was tied at 6-6 heading into the 6th inning. In the top half of the 6th inning, Five Star added 4 runs and then held on the bottom half of the inning to take a 10-6 win over the Blue Sox and take home the 11u PGBA Charlotte Invitational championship.