AZ State championship | Day1
The AEBA 9U playing up in the 10U AAA State Championship this weekend started both Pool Games off from behind, trailing early before putting up 13 runs in both game 1 13-1 and game 2 13-5. Offensively in Game 1, the boys went 8-21 at the plate with a trio of inside-the-park home runs from Oscar, Oliver, and Ty. Oliver would start the game for the ELITE and delivered 3 strong innings allowing just 2 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, on 7 strikeouts. Throwing Fuzz! Huddy would come on and close it out with 8 pitches in the 4th to end the game by mercy-rule. Oliver would throw 45 pitches ; Huddy 8.
Game 2 featured the ELITE falling behind early in the game 4-0. But as a relentless bunch of boys, they would cut the deficit in half in the 2nd before exploding for 6 runs in the 3rd and 5 runs in the 5th. The ELITE pitchers walked 9 of the 26 would be batters. Michael would pick up the win after delivering 1.1IP of no hit baseball. Huddy, Nico, and Oscar would limit the opponent to just 1 run on 2 hits between the 3rd-5th innings. Offensively, the bats stayed hot! Just one strikeout in 29 ABs including 13 hits and 10 rbis. Graham, Ty, and Dom would combine for 7 hits in 9 different at-bats. Ty and Eli would record extra base hits in the ballgame. Eli would have a sac-fly — perfectly executed situational at-bat! On the bases, the boys would swipe 16-17 bases in both games today.
AEBA 9U earned the #1 seed; will play in the Semi-Final at 12pm on Live @ Gamechanger.
The AEBA 10U started ahead in both 6 inning games today. Today’s games were against 2 quality ball clubs and the boys stayed focused and gave it their best with all of the boys stepping up and contributing in both wins. The 10U would win game 1 behind clutch hitting and crafty pitching from a trio of ELITE pitchers. Alex would start the game on his 11th birthday and pick up his first W of the day. Gunnar and Carter would combine for 5 innings of relief allowing just 1 earned run on 6 hits and 2bb/2so. Game 2 featured a resilient come-back from the boys. With some tough luck and lack of timely hits, the visiting AEBA 10U found themselves down 4-2 heading into the 6th inning. An outstanding leadoff at-bat from Braylon would lead to a walk that would bring Travis to the plate with 2 runners on. A timely single to left-center from Trav would put the boys down by 1 with Levi now stepping into the box vs. a new pitcher. A HBP to Levi would bring Carter to the plate and on the very first pitch would send a single to center scoring both the tying and go ahead run putting the ELITE up 5-4. Alexander the birthday boy would then step into the box and deliver a single of his own, plating Levi and now making the score 6-4. The ELITE would leave 2 runners on after a strikeout and pop out would end the inning. Pitching wise, Braylon did a good job of hitting his spots and working the strike zone. Bray would pump 24-29 strikes and give up just 1 earned run on 3 hits in 3 complete innings. Levi and Jackson would each work in relief before handing the ball back over to Alexander who started game 1. Alexander would work 1.2 innings giving up just 2 hits on 19 pitches. Now that’s the way you want to start off the 11th birthday and the Arizona State Championship. 2-0; #1 seed and some clutch moments and experiences for the boys. The 10U AEBA will square off with the winner of the Swarm v. Project Baseball game. AEBA will play the semi-final at 2pm at Golden Eagle Park.
Happy 11th birthday, Alex!